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PUBLIC 
SECONDARY EDUCATION 



PUBLIC SECONDARY 
EDUCATION 



By 
CALVIN CLIN DAVIS 

Assistant Professor of Education in the University of Michigan 
Author of "A Guide to Methods and Observation in History" 



RAND McNALLY & COMPANY 
CHICAGO NEW YORK 



Tl3 



Copyright, igij. 
By Rand McNally & Company 



f( .v'6 



rr,.. 



MAR 24 lyi/ 




A457610 






THE CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Introduction and Preface vii 

Sources Consulted xii 

CHAPTER 

-I. The Colonial Latin School . i 

II. The Middle Period 34 

III. The Early Northwest 64 

IV. Early Michigan 85 

V. Putting the Constitutional Provisions into Effect iio 

VI. Branches of the University 125 

VII. The Academy Movement 151 

VIII. The Rise and Development of the Union Schools . 172 

IX. The High-School Era 190 

Appendixes 243 

The Index 253 



THE INTRODUCTION AND PREFACE 

IN presenting this work to the public few explanations 
are necessary. The aim and purpose of the under- 
taking seemingly are clearly indicated in the title, and the 
justification for the production rests in the faithfulness 
with which these have been followed. 

Few will deny, I think, that the field of secondary 
education in America is to-day not only one of the most 
interesting fields of study in education, but that it is a 
most important realm of investigation and research. The 
high schools of America are largely the foundation upon 
which the colleges and tmiversities stand, and they are at 
the same time the culmination and the stimulating ideal 
toward which much of the work of the elementary schools 
is directed. They occupy a most important place in our 
system of education. They serve as agencies of culture 
for culture's sake, and simultaneously constitute prepar- 
atory institutions. Their character is therefore unique. 
In almost no other country in the world do schools of 
secondary education combine so many functions under a 
single type of institution. They are worthy of extensive 
study. 

The purpose of any historical study is, as I conceive 
it, to make intelligible the contemporary institutional 
and social life of the present. Social conditions of to- 
day are as they are because social conditions of yester- 
day were as they were yesterday. No period is sufficient 
unto itself. No era stands alone. What was done one 
hundred years ago affects in some measure the condi- 
tions now. Not a jot or a tittle that is significant in 
to-day's civilization will be wholly unrelated to life 
interests one himdred years hence. 

vii 



viii The Introduction and Preface 

Therefore, in order to comprehend completely the con- 
ditions that prevail in any locality to-day, there would 
be need to analyze the entire period that has gone before. 
Obviously, this is in large measure impossible. The best 
one may hope to do is to select and discriminate, and thus 
to treat the aspects that have exerted a decided influence 
upon the present. That has been the plan of this work. 

The high school, considered as a historical product, 
derives its character and form from earlier types of 
secondary education found in the state. These in turn 
were influenced not only by the facts of the general 
educational history of the state, but by the facts of the 
general educational history of the entire Northwest, — 
yes, of the general educational history of the nation. 
Indeed, political, social, and economic factors of all these 
regions have borne with more or less direct weight upon 
every recent phase of the special subject. 

Hence it has seemed desirable, first, to sketch briefly the 
entire history of secondary education in America up to 
the settlement of the Northwest Territory; then to narrow 
the discussion to the early aspects of general interest to 
education in this Northwest Territory; then to treat 
briefly the development of Michigan as a territory and as 
a state; and, finally, to consider the course of public sec- 
ondary education in the state during the seventy-nine 
years it has been a member of the Union. 

Current pedagogical theory believes pretty thoroughly 
in the study of a few type forms in order to derive a general 
knowledge of the entire related field. Data are too 
ntimerous and life is too short to permit of an exhaustive 
study of all the individual units. Thus psychology iso- 
lates a few individuals and studies in detail their char- 
acteristics and modes of mental reaction. It then applies 
the results deduced to all individuals of the same class. 



The IntrodtwUon and Preface ix 

So in physiography, instead of attempting to study and 
plot every river system and every mountain range, one 
typical river system and one typical mountain range 
serve as models. Having acquired a conceptual acquaint- 
ance with these, all other systems of rivers and moimtains 
are interpretable and explainable. 

The same procedure is followed in zoology, botany, and 
in fact in all sciences. The same principle applies in 
the study of medicine and of law ; of literary masterpieces ; 
of history and social institutions; of schools and education. 

In studying the history of public secondary education 
in Michigan one is, therefore, in reality studying the 
general history of public secondary education in the 
entire United States. The system of Michigan is but 
a type. The systems of the other states differ from it 
in details, but not strikingly in fundamental principles 
and characteristics. The study is, in fact, a treatment 
of public secondary education in America viewed through 
the lenses of Michigan's history and Michigan's current 
practices. 

In preparing the early portions of the work, namely, 
Chapters I to IV inclusive, I have made little attempt 
at original research. These early chapters give merely 
a background sketch of the general conditions here in 
America. The facts were taken largely from standard 
secondary sources, though verifications of statements 
were often made. 

As the work narrowed, source material alone was 
employed. The chapters entitled "The Early North- 
west" and "Early Michigan" are transition chapters. 
They are based chiefly on secondary accounts and only 
slightly on primary material. The real work of original 
research began with the topics relating to the admission 
of Michigan into the Union in 1837. 



X The Introduction and Preface 

For the history of the period from 1837 to 1915 I was 
forced to rely pretty largely upon Joint State Documents, 
House Documents, Senate Documents, Compiled Laws, 
Revised School Laws, Reports of the Superintendents of 
Public Instruction, reports of local educational author- 
ities to the state authorities, school catalogues, and 
similar data. While I have endeavored to be careful and 
accurate in statement, I am certain that the data upon 
which conclusions have been based were not always 
dependable themselves. Many figures in the reports of 
the superintendents of public instruction were obviously 
erroneous, and editing alone could give fair approach 
to the real facts. Often local reports were not regularly 
made to the superintendent, so that the historical study 
of any one school was frequently marred with breaks 
and gaps that could not be filled. In such cases nothing 
was possible except to omit the specific consideration at 
those points, and to pick up the trail where it next 
appeared. 

Much of the material that furnished a basis for the 
latter portions of the study consisted of school catalogues 
and the reports of individual schools; replies to a general 
questionnaire sent by the writer to several superintendents 
and principals in the schools to-day; personal letters; 
and personal knowledge gained from visits to many 
individual schools and from conversation with teachers 
and administrators in them. 

I wish here to express my sincere thanks to those men — 
superintendents and principals in the state — who have 
so courteously and willingly aided me. The question- 
naire sent to many of them called for no superficial 
and hurried list of replies. To answer it, I am sure, 
must have encroached upon their leisure time. Most 
of those who answered the questions at all seemed to 



The Introductian and Preface xi 

appreciate the nature of the request and replied accord- 
ingly. Some few treated the request indifferently, and 
either gave indifferent answers that were of little value 
to me, or else did not respond at all. On the whole, 
though, a most excellent set of answers was received. 

I wish to express my thanks to Hon. Luther L. Wright, 
formerly State Superintendent of Public Instruction of 
Michigan. He has kindly furnished me with much 
printed material from the state archives and has given 
me personal suggestions. I also wish to acknowledge my 
indebtedness to Professor Arthur O. Norton, of Wellesley 
College, and Professor Henry W. Holmes, of Harvard 
University, both of whom have read portions of the 
manuscript and offered valuable suggestions. 

My particular and especial thanks are, however, due 
to Professor Paul H. Hanus of Harvard University, imder 
whose personal direction and supervision the work has 
been undertaken and carried to completion. He has 
encouraged me in my efforts, suggested to me methods 
of procedure and organization, and has sympathetically 
read and criticized my manuscript. I give to him my 
sincere thanks. 

rr . .^ r T,.. J . Calvin O. Davis 

Umverstty of Michigan 

igi6 



SOURCES CONSULTED 

1. Brown, The Making of Our Middle Schools. 

2 . Dexter, History of Education in the United States. 

3. Boone, Education in the United States. 

4. Clews, Educational Legislation and Administration. 

5. Hinsdale, Documents Illustrative of American Edu- 

cational History. 

6. Martin, Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School 

System. 

7. Meriwether, Oiir Colonial Curriculum. 

8. Leach, English Schools of the Reformation. 

g. De Montmorency, Progress of Education in England. 

10. Balfour, Educational Systems in Great Britain and 

Ireland. 

11. Dillaway, History of the Grammar School in Roxhury. 

12. Parker, Sketch of the History of the Grammar School 

in Roxhury. 

13. Butler, Education in the United States. 

14. The American Journal of Education (numerous 

articles). 

15. Reports of the United States Commissioner of 

Education. 

16. Rice, Public School System in the United States. 

17. Adam, Free School System in the United States. 

18. Allen, "Old Academies" (in New Englander Maga- 

zine). 

19. Johnson, Old Time Schools and School Books. 

20. QuiNCY, Municipal History of Boston. 

21. Jenks, Boston Latin School. 

22. Bush, Early Edtication in New England. 

23. Hough, Constitutional Provisions in Regard to Edu- 

cation. 



Sources Consulted xiii 

24. Catalogue of the Boston Latin School. 

25. Mayo, Public Schools during Revolutionary Times. 

26. Mayo, Education in the Southern States. 

27. North American Review, Vol. 122, pp. 191-225. 

28. HuLiNG, American High School. 

29. Chase, History oj Ohio. 

30. Johnston, History of the United States. 

31. Hinsdale, The Old Northwest. 

32. McLaughlin, History of the American Nation. 

33. Hart, Formation of the Union. 

34. CoGGESHiLL, System of Common Schools in Ohio. 

35. WooDBURN, Higher Education in Indiana. 

36. Willard, History of Education in Illinois. 

37. McLaughlin, History of Higher Education in Mich- 

igan. 

38. Mayo, Education in the Northwest. 

39. Lanman, History of Michigan. 

40. CooLEY, Political History of Michigan. 

41. Farmer, History of Detroit. 

42. Salmon, Education in Michigan during the Terri- 

torial Period. 

43. Smith, History of Education in Michigan. 

44. Putnam, Primary and Secondary Education in Michi- 

gan. 

45. Reports of Superintendents of Public Listruction of 

Michigan. 

46. Campbell, Outlines of the Political History of Mich- 

igan. 

47. Bingham, Michigan. 

48. Howe, Ohio. 

49. Taylor, Manual of Ohio School System. 

50. Proceedings, National Educational Association for 

1885, p. 19s; 1891, p. 677; 1899, p. 412. 

51. Frieze, Early History of Cleveland High School. 



xiv Sources Consulted 

52. Hurley, Annals of American Academy of Political 

and Social Science, Sept., 1896, Vol. 8, No. 2, p. 120. 

53. Hinsdale, Schools in the Western Reserve. 

54. Barnard, American Joiirnal of Education, Vols. 5, 6, 

16, 17, 19, 24. 

55. Knight, Life of Colet. 

56. LuPTON, Life of Colet. 

57. Barney, Report on the American School System. 

58. Shearman, Public Instruction and School Law of 

Michigan. 

59. Hinsdale, History of the University of Michigan. 

60. Joint Documents of the Legislature of Michigan. 

61. House and Senate Reports of the Legislature of 

Michigan. 

62. Revised School Laws of Michigan. 

63. Reports of Superintendents of City Public Schools. 

64. Michigan Pioneer Collections. 

65. Circulars and bulletins issued by the State Educa- 

tional Department. 

66. Annual catalogues of the University of Michigan. 

67. Annual catalogues of numerous city and town school 

boards and school superintendents. 

68. Numerous programs of studies of high schools. 

69. Report of the State Commission on Programs of 

Study. 

70. Report of the Commission of the North Central 

Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. 

71. Replies received in answer to a general questionnaire. 

72. Private letters. 

73. Bradstreet's Weekly. 



PUBLIC SECONDARY 
EDUCATION 

CHAPTER I 

The Colonial Latin School 

WHEN in 1629 and 1630 the Piiritan fathers began the 
colonization of the Massachusetts coast, they set 
up here the practices and the institutions of the old 
home, modifying them only so much as was necessary 
to make them conform to the ideals and exigencies 
demanded by the new life in America. Thus at the 
outset in Massachusetts Bay Colony the settlers sought 
privately to give their children the rudiments of the 
English language and the elements of writing and 
ciphering; simiiltaneously they set up, publicly, a school 
of higher learning — the town Latin or grammar school. 

As the name implies, the school aimed to give youths 
a training in Latin grammar and literature, and thus fit 
them for college. But its ultimate fimction was to equip 
them for public service in either church positions or civil 
and political offices. Such a school was established in 
Boston in 1635, five years after its settlement — probably 
the first school of secondary education in America.^ 

It is true the Virginia Company and the West India 
Company had each made provisions for founding schools 
in America at a date somewhat earlier than 163 5, but there 
seems to be no evidence that any of these projected plans 
were ever carried into execution. It is quite certain, too, 
that as early as 1633 there was a school established in New 

1 Brown, The Making of Our Middle Schools, p. 34. 

2 I 



2 Public Secondary Education 

Amsterdam.^ This, however, was not a real public 
school, nor did it aim to give secondary education. It 
was purely a private undertaking and a school of an 
elementary character. 

From the Massachusetts Colony then, and from Boston 
in particular, dates the foundation of the American public 
schools of secondary education. The Boston Latin 
School was styled a "free school," but it was established 
and supported at the outset not by the whole body of 
legal voters, but by the mutual agreement and the 
voluntary contributions of the "richer inhabitants" of 
the town. Precisely what was meant, therefore, by the 
expression "free school" has been a question of much 
dispute. It is certain that the words did not, in colonial 
times, denote a school free from all tuition fees. Indeed, 
such fees were always exacted from every pupil, save, 
perchance, from the children of the very poorest families. 
Nor did "free school" signify a school maintained 
wholly or partially by public taxation, inasmuch as, at 
the outset at least, schools were not thus supported. 
Whatever be the exact import of the words, it suffices for 
oiu" purpose to bear in mind that a "free school" in colo- 
nial days was always a school of secondary grade. That 
is to say, it was a Latin or grammar school. 
-It is also well here to point out that secondary schools 
went imder various names almost down to our own day. 
Besides grammar schools and free schools they were 
not infrequently referred to as public schools, classical 
schools, Latin-grammar schools, or merely Latin schools — 
all these expressions being, so far as discoverable, only 
provincialisms or localisms, and therefore practically 
synonymous. Before the close of the seventeenth century 
nearly all the colonies possessed Latin schools; but, save 

1 Dexter, History of Education in the United States, p. I3- 



The Colonial Latin School 3 

in New England, these were, almost without exception, 
private undertakings privately supported. In New Eng- 
land this was not the case. In 1636 Harvard Univer- 
sity was founded. In 1642 the General Court established 
a precedent by enacting a general school law which, 
though of little force at the time, became later of great 
historical significance.^ In 1647 the earlier law was 
strengthened by changing the permissive features into 
mandatory provisions. Instead of leaving education in 
the hands of local selectmen, the law of 1647 explicitly 
required every town of fifty families to maintain an 
elementary school, and likewise every town of one hundred 
families to support a Latin or grammar school. The' 
private or dame schools prepared for the Latin school; 
the Latin school prepared for the university; the univer- 
sity prepared for social leadership and social service. — 
Here then was the beginning in America of, a school 
system that recognized three grades of instruction and 
three types of educational institutions. These are (i) 
the elementary or primary school; (2) the secondary or 
college preparatory school; (3) the university or college. 
The first dealt with the school arts and the tools of 
education; the second dealt almost wholly with Latin, 
with slight attention to Greek, mathematics, and Eng- 
lish; the last, theoretically at least, presented the sum 
total of higher learning. Massachusetts thus became the 
mother of the American school system. Her laws and 
institutions were adopted, with more or less change, by 
most of the other colonies. Wherever she led, other 
colonies followed. Whenever she halted, other colonies 
lagged behind. Thus matters stood well beyond Revolu- 
tionary days. We shall in subsequent pages return to 

1 For the general history of education in Massachusetts see Martin's Evolution 
of the Massachusetts Public School System. 



4 Public Secondary Education 

this phase of otir study. Meanwhile a more analytical 
investigation of the colonial secondary schools will be 
desirable. 

Historically considered, the story of secondary education 
in America falls into three more or less clearly recognized 
divisions. First is the Colonial Period, with its Latin or 
gramjiiar school; second, the Middle Period, extending 
from Revolutionary days down to the time of the Civil 
War, in which period the characteristic secondary school 
was the academy; and, third, the Contemporary Period, 
or period since the Ci\dl War, with the public high school 
as the typical school of secondary scope. The first period 
imitates closely the institutions, ways, and ideas of 
Europe; the last period is typically American; while the 
intervening period of a hundred years exhibits the char- 
acteristics of both the other periods, being largely imita- 
tive in the earlier years and gradually developing an 
independence and an originality of its own in later times. 

From the very first, as Dr. Brown conceives the situa- 
tion, there were thus two opposing influences affecting the 
higher life of the people of America. These influences 
were a tendency to and spirit of imitation and an equally 
strong tendency to and spirit of protest.^ Everywhere in 
the institutional life of early America are seen the effects 
of these mingling forces, but perhaps in no field are they 
more noticeable than in the field of education and of 
educational practices. The evidence goes to show that 
the social ideals and the educational practices of all 
v/estem Europe exerted considerable indirect influence on 
the American colonists, but that the great direct stream 
of formative power flowed in from England, Holland, 
Scotland, and Germany. All contributed largely to the 
ideals and organization of American elementary schools, 

1 Brown, op. cit., p. 6. 



The Colonial Latin Scliool 5 

but the great prototypes of the early American secondary 
school were the English Latin or grammar schools.^ 
And yet the Calvinistic influences common in England 
at the time, and more especially among the Puritans who 
migrated to America, served here to modify the older 
types from the outset. Hence from their very birth the 
American Latin schools conformed more closely to the 
social needs — or to the ideals conceived to be social 
needs — of the new settlements, than to the social de- 
mands of old England. 

There is no doubt, too, that the extensive system of 
schools established by the Jesuits in Europe and else- 
where had an indirect influence on American schools, 
but since the territory from Maine to Florida was settled 
chiefly by Protestants, and largely by English Protes- 
tants, and since, too, Catholicism — and consequently the . 
Jesuits — was debarred from England for many years, 
the direct influence of the Jesuit schools was indeed small 
or even nil. 

In consequence of this natural but excessive English 
influence, the first schools that sprang up in New England 
took, as we have seen above, a form that was typical at 
home. The Boston Latin School was first styled a "free 
school," but was voted and supported not by the town 
as a whole but by the "richer inhabitants thereof."^ 
It was thus a purely cooperative undertaking, — the 
members volimtarily agreeing to meet the expense 
of the school by voltmtary contributions. Evidence 
seems to point, however, to the belief that children of 

1 An excellent account of the early schools of England is found in Leach's English 
Schools of ike Reformation. For later schools see de Montmorency's Progress of 
Education in England. For the present-day conditions see Balfour's Educational 
Systems in Great Britain and Ireland. 

2 Clews, Educational Legislation and Administration, p. 6i. For accounts of 
the schools of Boston see Quincy's Municipal History of Boston; Jenk's Boston 
Latin School; early catalogues of the Boston Latin School; Bush's Early Education 
in New England; Boone's Education in the United States, and other similar writings. 



6 Public Secondary Education 

non-contributors who were not of the "richer" class were 
also admitted to this school. Indeed, this may be the true 
significance of the expression "free school," though there 
is no proof of the theory. Within six years, however, it 
is certain that the school had become a recognized town 
school, for we read that in 1641 the town voted to devote 
to the partial support of this school all the revenues 
accruing from the rental of lands on Deer Island. Here 
then was another important step in the history of educa- 
tion in America, — a step no less significant than the 
decision to establish the school in the first place. This 
act of the town meeting not only established a precedent 
for Boston, but also for the whole of Massachusetts and 
America. It set up the principle that schools are contrib- 
utory to the social and political welfare of the whole 
people, and that the establishment and support of schools 
is, therefore, a legitimate function of government. 

During the succeeding ten years Boston voted grants of 
considerable portions of land, and in 1660 these local 
town efforts were supplemented by a grant of a thousand 
acres of land made by the General Court of Massachusetts 
Colony for the support of schools in Boston. Though 
this grant was not the first made by the General Court 
(it had in 1659 voted a like amount of land to each of the 
three towns of Dorchester, Charlestown, and Cambridge), 
it served to strengthen the precedent and to fix per- 
manently in our governmental policy the idea that 
local effort of great social importance may be supported 
and supplemented by funds from the central treasury. 
What a mighty role the custom thus inaugurated has 
played in the history of education in the United States ! 
What vast tracts of land has the Federal Government 
dedicated to schools of all kinds during the century and a 
quarter! In many parts of America the elementary 



The Colonial Latin School 7 

schools, the colleges, and the agricultural and technical 
schools owe their very existence to the generosity of 
the central government in appropriating lands for their 
foundation. The Massachusetts law of 1659 had con- 
sequences more far-reaching than the uttermost stretch 
of the imagination of the time could have comprehended. 
At the time, too, these early central appropriations must 
have come as welcome benefactions to the struggling 
little towns whose treasuries were being drawn upon for 
so many other needs. It is not, however, until 1679^ 
that the Boston records make mention of any specific 
tax being levied by the town upon the town's inhabitants 
for school purposes, though it is possible such tax was 
raised at a considerably earlier date. 

In the meantime in other portions of Massachusetts 
Bay Colony other grammar schools were being established. 
Within the short period of sixteen years after the first 
extensive settlements in Massachusetts in 1629 eight Latin 
schools were founded. These were: Boston, in 1635; 
Charlestown, in 1636; Ipswich, in 1636; Salem, in 1637; 
Dorchester, in 1639; Newbury, in 1639; Cambridge, in 
1643 ; 3J^d Roxbiiry, in 1645.^ Each of these was a school 
of secondary education, and the aims, scope, and instruc- 
tion given in all were almost precisely the same as those of 
the Boston school. 

On the other hand, the organization, administration, 
and support of these schools varied slightly with each 
town in accordance and harmony with the good old 
Anglo-Saxon doctrine of local self-government. Indeed, 
throughout the whole history of Massachusetts, even to 
the present day, the custom has prevailed of allowing 
local or individual initiative at the outset to take its own 

1 Dexter, op. cit., p. 26. 

2 Brown, op. cit., pp. 34-42. 



8 Public Secondary Education 

course in the administration and execution of political or 
civic functions. Then, after this "cut and try" method 
has produced a fairly acceptable procedure, and other 
towns and communities, likewise experimenting, have 
developed a kindred method or standard, the state has 
stepped in and legitimatized the practices by incorporating 
into a permissive law the common and salient featiires of 
all the local regulations. The provisions of this act have 
later been extended, optionally, to other towns of similar 
rank and, finally, when the great majority of the towns 
have adopted the permissive legislation, the state has 
closed the gaps by making the law mandatory on aU alike. 
This has been the general course of the history of education 
throughout Massachusetts; and, since many of the other 
states of the Union have copied their school systems and 
legislation from this Commonwealth, it is the common 
practice in vogue throughout a large portion of the 
United States.^ In fact, the procedure may not unjustly 
be regarded as the distinctive feature of Anglo-Saxon 
governmental practice. 

So at the outset of our colonial history each town 
regulated its school matters as it saw fit, without regard 
to what other towns were doing — save that in particular 
matters there was a more or less conscious imitation of 
the practices thought to be working well in other com- 
mimities. Sometimes the peculiar local conditions or 
temporary needs led to the employment of new and 
hitherto imtried methods. In the earliest days school 
matters, as well as all other town affairs, were discussed 
and provided for by the whole body of enfranchised 
citizens of the town, gathered together in town meeting. 
Then when the town's growth made the town meeting 

1 For a complete elaboration of the view set forth above — 'especially as the 
j)ractice has affected educational history in Massachusetts — see that most readable 
little book, Martin's Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School System. 



The Colonial Latin School g 

unwieldy and inconvenient, and the town's affairs were 
largely turned over to selectmen, school functions were 
in most places left to this new body. Executive duties, 
such as employing the teacher and overseeing the school's 
needs and the school's work, led soon to the appointment, 
from among the selectmen, of temporary committees 
charged with these specified functions. Inasmuch, how- 
ever, as these or similar duties recurred annually or 
oftener, the situation gave rise to permanent school 
committees. Ordinarily, it seems, these were chosen from 
among the selectmen themselves, but sometimes they were 
selected from the non-office-holding class. Particularly 
was this the case in respect to school visitation and 
inspection — this function, until early in the nineteenth 
century, being performed either solely by the Christian 
ministers of the community or conjointly by them and 
one or more of the selectmen or the school committee. 

In some few towns at an early date special officers other 
than the selectmen or committee of the selectmen were 
chosen to take complete charge of the schools. Dor- 
chester, Massachusetts, probably enjoys the distinction 
of being the first town in this country to provide such a 
body. In 1645 this town voted in town meeting "that 
three able and sufficient men of the Plantation shall be 
chosen to be wardens or overseers of the school, who shall 
have the charge, oversight, and ordering thereof and 
of all things concerning the same."^ Dorchester also 
claims the honor (with how much justice documentary 
evidence is not able to decide) of being the first mimici- 
pality in the world to support a public school "by direct 
taxation or assessment on the inhabitants of the tovm."^ 

1 Town records. See Brown, op. cit., p. 39. 

2 Brown, ihid., quotes this from the "Dorchester celebration," then adds: 
"A competent public commission appointed some years ago in Massachusetts to 
set at rest the question where the first free public school came into being, was 
unable to arrive at any final answer, for lack of clear documentary evidence." 



lo Public Secondary Education 

At best, the accuracy or inaccuracy of the boast is of 
little value or importance, save as a source of satisfaction 
to local pride. The important point to note is that from 
the very first settlement of towns in New England, atten- 
tion was given to founding and maintaining schools — 
many of them of secondary grade and all of them directly 
or indirectly supported by the town or the "better part" 
thereof. 

As above indicated, no two of these schools were or- 
ganized, administered, or supported in precisely the same 
way. In some towns, even as late as the eighteenth 
century, school questions were decided in town meet- 
ings by the qualified voters of the town. In others the 
selectmen, collectively, controlled. In still others we find 
committees of the selectmen or, as in Dorchester, special 
school committees who had complete supervision of all 
school matters. 

Likewise, too, in respect to the means of maintaining 
the schools, there was a variety of sources of revenue. 
Tuition fees from all who attended, save from the very 
poorest children, were common in every town. Rentals 
from public properties and payments for public monop- 
olies were also not infrequent or insignificant sources of 
school funds. Among these were revenues from lands, 
weirs, fisheries, and markets — all specifically dedicated 
to the support of education. In addition, many gifts, 
bequests, and endowments helped often to swell the 
funds, and after 1659 occasional grants from the colonial 
treasury were made. 

It is thus seen that from the earliest days the Puritan 
settlers fostered a spirit and interest in education which 
have been of vital importance in the history of our 
country. Strange as it may seem, this interest was not 
directed primarily to public elementary schools and 



The Colonial Latin School ii 

education so much as it was to public secondary schools. 
It was the Latin school that was first founded in Boston 
in 1635. It was the Latin school that first arose in 
Charlestown, Dorchester, Roxbury, and the other New 
England towns. Nor are the explanations of this fact 
difficult to find. They are discoverable partly in the 
general traditions of education and educational institu- 
tions; partly in the customs immediately current, in 
England at the time of the migrations to America; and 
partly in the character of the settlers themselves. 

In all times and among all peoples, education and 
literary instruction have been very closely bound up with 
religious and ecclesiastical matters.^ Among primitive 
men the shaman, or familiar, acted not only as priest 
of the tribe but as the teacher of the youth. He it was 
who, knowing the mysteries of life, was able to transmit 
them to the adolescent boys. So, too, among the Ori- 
entals, the Greeks, and the Romans, education took its 
rise as a fimction of the priesthood. With the develop- 
ment of Christianity and the spread of churches, the 
cathedral and the monastic schools throughout Christen- 
dom came to be dominated almost solely by the eccle- 
siastical authorities. Schools were, therefore, erected and 
maintained almost completely to the end that reHgion 
might be perpetuated, the powers of the Church enhanced, 
and pious and godly men and women reared. The guide 
to the religious life, it was conceived, was the Scriptures, 
and since these for a thousand years had been locked 
up in the Latin language, the study of the Latin lan- 
guage and literature became paramount. Following the 
enthusiastic revival of study in the Renaissance and 
Himianistic movements of the fifteenth and sixteenth 

1 This statement and the following are based on the more common views of the 
various histories of education, such as Brown's, Monroe's, Davidson's, and Laurie's. 



12 Public Secondary Education 

centuries there was added to the Latin a study of 
the Greek and the Hebrew tongues. The end and 
aim of literary study was the knowledge of Holy Writ. 
The means to this knowledge were the Latin schools. 
Consequently educational traditions and educational 
practices alike tended to promote this type of school in 
America. 

Finally the very genius and spirit of the early colonists 
led them to cherish education for noble ends. Man^ of 
the settlers of Massachusetts were well educated gentle- 
men for whom the highest ideals of life were a free Church 
and a free State in which pious, godly, and learned men 
were to play equal and active parts. They had come to 
America to seek to realize those ideals, and the first 
and foremost means to the end sought was the public 
school — that is to say, the Latin or grammar school 
which should fit the youth for college. The ideal evidently 
was that every boy in the colony should receive a college 
education. Everywhere among the early political and 
religious doctmients of these Puritans one finds reference 
to the religious, civil, and moral aims that lay at the basis 
of all activity and all institutional life. For example, in 
the annals of Roxbury of 1645 one reads: "Whereas the 
inhabitants of Roxbury, in consideration of their religious 
care of posterity, have taken into consideration how 
necessary the education of their children in Literature will 
be to fit them for public service, both in Church and 
Commonwealth, in succeeding years. They therefore 
unanimously have consented and agreed to erect a free 
school in the said town of Roxbury."^ Again and again in 
the New England town docimients do we find repeated the 
thought that life is best lived when it is devoted to the 

1 Annals of Roxbury, quoted by Brown, op. cil., p. 40. See also Dillav/ay's 
History of the Grammar School in Roxbury; and Parker's Skaich of Ike History of the 
Grammar School in Roxbury. 



The Colonial Latin School 13 

Church and the Commonwealth, and that the best 
preparation for such a life is the training given by the 
Latin school and college. 

Thus motives of rehgious and public service dominated 
the entire life of the times, and in so doing set the ideals 
for the schools. The theoretical and ultimate aims and 
ideals were, therefore, for the most part general and 
primary; but the immediate and practical ends were 
not wholly lacking. For example, the law of 1642 
provided that the various towns and their selectmen 
should, among other duties, see that there was furnished 
"learning and labor and other emplo}n.Tients which may 
be profitable to the Commonwealth." So, too, in 1645, 
the General Court decreed that boys from ten to sixteen 
years of age should be trained in the "art and practice of 
arms" — the instruction to be given "by some one of the 
officers of the band."^ Kindred, too, to the religious and 
civil motives for education was foimd the philanthropic 
and missionary motive. Schools were to be open free of 
charge to the poor children of the town, and express 
provision was also made, in some of the annals, for the 
gratuitous instruction of Indian youths. 

It is thus to be observed that the leading motive back 
of all efforts to establish schools was, in the early colonial 
times, the religious motive. It determined largely the 
aim, scope, and administration of all educational imder- 
takings. Closely allied with it, however, were the civic 
and the philanthropic ideals. Though the Renaissance 
and the Reformation had swept over Europe more than 
a hundred years earlier, there was still left in Christendom 
much of the old spirit of medievalism. Asceticism; 
rigidity of morals and manners; unquestioning faith 
within the somewhat enlarged, yet still narrow, limits 

1 Clews, op. cil., p. 60. 



14 Public Secondary Education 

which an individualism partially enthroned had set; the 
conceptions of the words "God" and "the Bible" as the 
most awful that the mind possessed; the view which 
placed the real goal of life beyond the grave; the contempt 
for the physical, the natural, the aesthetic, because of the 
belief that these are evil or at least invite to evil; — all 
these were characteristics of the foiu"teenth century, but 
they are also characteristics that were more or less 
prominent in New England in the early years of the 
seventeenth century. To the people of that day, to 
live at all was a most serious and awful affair; to live 
a godly life, unselfishly to serve one's fellow men 
through the state, was the height and depth of human 
perfection and the noblest pursuit the individual could 
follow. 

Hence the Christian minister took social rank above all 
others. His ideals became the ideals of the town; his 
advice became the accepted creed of his flock. From his 
exalted station he was regarded as ex officio a member of 
every public organization and every administrative body. 
Consequently his power was enormous, and he exerted it 
with a feeling that he was divinely directed. The schools 
therefore were shaped to approximate a youth to the 
ministerial ideal. The aim was, therefore, at least 
nominally democratic, in that it was hoped and expected 
that every boy would receive a thorough education, — that 
he would become past-master of Latin, and perchance 
have a good command of Greek and Hebrew. 

Nor does the ambition appear so strange when one 
recalls that, at the very time the Piuitans were settling 
in America, ecclesiastical and civil authority and lay 
influence in Europe were strenuously seeking to preserve 
Latin intact as the universal language. It was at this 
time that Comenius brought forth his Janua linguarum 



The Colonial Latin School 15 

reserata and promised that his method would not only 
enable one in a brief period to conquer fully the Latin 
language, but would give a complete and full compre- 
hension of all the knowledge of the world. The optimism 
and egoism of the teachers and the educational reformers 
of the age knew no limits; nor is it strange that this 
peculiar infection respecting the powers of the schools, 
and of Latin within the schools, should have extended to 
America. The Latin school was indeed regarded as the 
very servant of the Lord. 

Exactly what was the program of studies in these early 
schools is not determinable. Certain it is, however, 
that the ideals were to teach only Latin and Greek and 
Hebrew, and to inculcate precepts and habits of morals, 
manners, and religion. If other and more elementary 
subjects were admitted, it was to make them serve as a 
foundation for the advanced subjects; they had no merit 
or worth in their own right or name. Theology was the 
noblest branch of learning; the classics were the way 
thereto. 

Dr. Brown thinks that the most representative of all 
the English grammar schools, and therefore the one that 
best furnishes the ideal of our colonial Latin schools, was 
that founded by Dean Colet about 1508,^ and known as 
St. Paul's School, London.^ Certain it is that there was 
great similarity among all the grammar schools, so that 
a study of one of them ought to give a fairly accurate 
notion of all. Moreover, the first master of St. Paul's 
was William Lilly, the author of the famous Latin gram- 
mar that became the standard authority in the schools 
of England and America. It is therefore very probable 
that the work in the early colonial schools differed little 

1 It is doubtful whether this school was established in 1508, 1509, 1510, or 1512. 
See Knight's Life of Colet, pp. 102-109. 

2 Brown, op. cit., p. 12. 



1 6 Public Secondary Education 

from that of St. Paul's. Respecting the requirements 
of admission to this school one reads: "If your childe 
can rede and wryte latyn and Englisshe sufficiently soo 
that he be able to rede and wryte his owne lessons, then 
he shal be admytted unto the scole for a scholar." "If 
your childe after reasonable season proved be founde here 
tmapte and tmable to lemynge, than ye warned thereof 
shal take hym awaye, that he occupye not here rowme 
in vayne." "If he be apte to lerne, ye shal be content 
that he contynue here tyl he have some competent 
literatiu-."^ 

Respecting the subjects to be taught, the account 
continues as follows: "I would that they [the pupils] 
were taught all way in good literature both laten and 
greke, and good auctors suych as have the veray Romayne 
eliquence joyned withe wisdome." Later follows a list 
of these authors, and it includes both the classical and 
the Christian. Unless the youth had a fair foundation 
in the rudiments of learning (which most frequently 
was apparently not the case) the first work in the gram- 
mar school consisted of a study of the alphabet and of 
simple sentences in English, and the memorizing of the 
catechism, the Psalms, and the Testament. Then the 
study of Latin was begun and as proficiency in this 
subject increased, attention to English diminished. The 
pupil passed successively through the stages of acci- 
dence, grammar, construing, and the making of Latin 
letters, verses, declamations, and themes. Then fol- 
lowed the study of the selections of the classical litera- 
ture itself — the works of .^sop, Caesar, Tiilly (Cicero), 
Ovid, Vergil, Horace, Eutropius, Juvenal, Persius, 
Terence, Sallust, Nepos, Corderius, and Erasmus.^ 

1 Lupton, Life of Colet, Appendix B. 

2 Meriwether, Ouf Colonial Curriculum, pp. 74 Jf. 



The Colonial Latin School 17 

These and others furnished the literary study, while 
Priscian, Donatus, and Lilly were the standard authorities 
in grammar. 

All texts used in our colonial schools were brought from 
England until Cheever's Accidence appeared in 1644. 
This then became the stock primer of Latin for the 
colonial days. 

The Accidence was a little book of scarcely a hun- 
dred pages and, as the name implies, served as a 
guide and introduction to the rudiments of the Latin 
language. It was written in English but was lacking 
in all illustrative material, both for etymology and for 
syntax. To master it was a dead lift of the memory. 
To the scriptural injunction of presenting "line upon 
line, precept upon precept" was added the massing of 
fact upon fact, and exception upon exception. No 
effort was made to elicit the spontaneous interests of 
the boy, or to make the abstract text connect with 
the reaHties of boy Hfe. In fact, the very remoteness 
of the thought from the worldly matters of the day, the 
very difficulties that were involved in mastering the 
language, were considered to be proof sufficient of the 
value of classical study. Cheever's Accidence became 
very popular and was used in the schools well down 
into the nineteenth century. It passed through eighteen 
editions,^ the last one appearing in 1838. 

Note. The various editions of this famous textbook differ 
somewhat from each other in form and in content. The earhest 
editions, apparently, were the smallest. Those now in the Harvard 
Library are all i2mo volumes, usually containing seventy-two 
pages. One, however, has eighty-five. 

1 Dexter, op. cit., p. 218. I have found, however, in the Harvard Library a 
reprint of what purports to be a twentieth edition. The original [it is claimed) was 
publishea at Salem by Samuel Hall in 1685. A copy of the edition of 1838 is also 
in this library, but the title page declares the edition was "carefully revised, 
corrected and stereotyped from the i8th edition." It does not claim to be the 
eighteenth edition. 



1 8 Public Secondary Education 

The title page of a reprint of the ninth edition reads thus: 

A Short 
Introduction 

TO THE 

Latin Tongue 
FOR THE Use of the Lower Forms 

IN THE 

Latin School 

BEING the 
ACCIDENCE 

abridg'd and compil'd in that most easy and accurate method, 
wherein the famous mr. ezekiel cheever taught and which 
he found most advantageous for seventy years. 

the ninth edition, to which is added a catalogue of irreg- 
ULAR NOUNS AND VERBS DISPOS'd ALPHABETICALLY. 

BOSTON. PRINTED BY KNEELAND AND ADAMS, IN MILK STREET 
FOR THOMAS LEVERETT IN CORN HILL 1 776. 

The book gives four pages to an explanation of "Latin Letters, 
Points, etc.," and then treats briefly of the eight fundamental 
parts of Speech in order. All descriptive matter is in English 
throughout the book, but the Latin words have no English equiva- 
lents suggested. A sample page is herewith given. It is page 12 

of the ninth edition. 

' 1' 

THE FOURTH DECLENSION 
Nouns of the Fourth Declension are of the masculine gender 
commonly and are thus declined 



SiNGULARITER 


Nom. 


hie Grad-us 


Gen. 


Grad-us 


Dat. 


Grad-ui 


Ace. 


Grad-um 


Voc. 


Grad-us 


Abl. 


Grad-u 



Pluraliter 


Nom. 


Grad-us 


Gen. 


Grad-uum 


Dat. 


Grad-ibus 


Ace. 


Grad-us 


Voc. 


Grad-us 


AM. 


Grad-ibus 



Some few nouns of the Declension have the Dative and Ablative 
Plural in ubus; as specus, arcus, artus, tribus, partus. 



The Colonial Latin School 19 

Those that end in u are of the Neuter Gender and not declined 
in the singular number; but in the Plural Number they are declined- 

SiNGULARITER PLURALITER 

Hoc Genu Nom. gen-ua 

Undeclined Cen. gen-tun 

DaL gen-ibus 

Ace. gen-ua 

Voc. gen-ua 

Abl. gen-ibus 

Lilly's Grammar, which was the second book used by 
most Latin students, was no improvement over the 
Accidence. In fact, the difficulties were increased rather 
than diminished. The Accidence was written in English; 
Lilly's Grammar was wholly in Latin, and required a 
"frightful burden of memorizing page upon page" of 
forms, rules, and exceptions. Nor is this the end. The 
very colloquial use of English was forbidden in the class- 
room, and among advanced pupils strenuous efforts were 
made to keep the youth from uttering a word in that 
language at any time. Needless to say, this ideal was 
seldom or never realized, nor was it so truly the aim in 
secondary schools as in the college and the university. 
^ In so far as Greek was studied at all in the secondary 
schools its pursuit took the same general course as that 
of Latin. Greek accidence, grammar, and the New Testa- 
ment followed in order. Then came portions of Plato, 
Demosthenes, and Isocrates, together with some effort 
at Greek composition. This task was, however, gen- 
erally found to be too difficult, and the time at one's dis- 
posal too short, to result in any great proficiency, and 
in few schools was Greek given much attention. Josiah 
Quincy, writing in pre-Revolutionary days, says that the 
knowledge of Greek required for admission to Harvard 
University was "sUght and superficial" and consisted of 
"Gloucester's Greek Gramm<ir and ability to construe the 



20 Public Secondary Education 

four gospels."^ In the Boston Latin School, he adds, 
Xenophon and Homer were merely "dipped into."^ 
t^' The third subject of emphasis in the colonial grammar 
schools was the study of the Bible and of religion. The 
instruction in this field consisted of the catechism, 
reports of sermons heard on Sunday, attendance on 
morning and evening prayer, and the committing to 
memory of portions of Bible history. This constimed 
much time, but it represents only the formal side of 
religious teaching. The very atmosphere of the school 
was surcharged with the religious spirit. Textbooks, — 
when textbooks became common — fairly oozed religious 
thoughts. Even as late as the early eighteenth century, 
when a very noticeable secular spirit had begun to come 
over New England, this obtrusive religiosity is clearly 
seen. At that time appeared a little book containing 
"sentences for children" and intended to be an easier 
introduction to Latin. In this text on a single "page 
of thirty-five lines the word God appears 28 times, 
not counting pronouns."^ Can one wonder at the 
rebellion against schooling and at the hypocrisy and the 
evasion of law that were so common at this time? Nor 
can there be any doubt that the conditions were similar 
in these respects in the early seventeenth century — or 
perhaps were even more extreme. 

These Latin schools, as before stated, aimed chiefly 
to prepare youth for college — the earliest ones having 
Harvard College as their dictating mistress. The two 
types of institutions — the college and the grammar 
school — therefore kept step together, the one leading 
the way and setting the pace and the other docilely 



1 Meriwether, op. ciU, p. 102. 

2 Ibid., p. 103. 

3 Ibid., p. 77. See also Am. Jour, of Ed., Vol. 32, p. 873. 



The Colonial Latin School 21 

following. Both mirrored the thought and ambitions of 
the age, and as these were narrow and restricted, so the 
program of studies in the schools was confined and in- 
elastic. The aim and scope of the work in the secondary 
schools can well be seen from the admission requirements 
of the college. The requirements of Harvard in 1642 
read thus: "When any scholar is able to understand 
Tully, or such like classical Latin author extempore, 
and make and speak true Latin in verse and prose, suo 
ut aiunt marie; and decline perfectly the paradigms of 
nouns and verbs in the Greek tongue ; Let him then and 
not before be capable of admission into the college."^ 
This was all. The ability to compose Latin and Greek 
sentences reasonably well was the sole entrance require- 
ment for admission to college and the chief aim of the 
grammar school. Indeed, not infrequently the require- 
ment in Greek was waived by the college, and in conse- 
quence that subject was more and more neglected by the 
secondary schools. 

Once within the college there was still no individ- 
ual freedom — no choice of subject-matter. Boys were 
admonished not to "use the mother-tongue except when 
specially allowed on some public occasion. "^ Besides, 
the course was entirely prescribed to its minutest details 
and was most narrow in scope and variety. In content, 
form, and method the work differed little from the 
pattern of medieval scholasticism. All was bookish and 
dead, nor was effort made to embellish or enliven it. 
In order to show in its fullness the literary goal of the 
time I give here the earliest Harvard schedule. This 
is the work outlined in 1642 for the three years' 
course. 

1 Josiah Quincy, History of Harvard, Vol. I, p. 515; also Brown, op. cit., p. 128, 
quoting from Pierce, History of Harvard University, Appendix, pp. 48-49. 

2 Meriwether, op. cit., p. 53. 



22 



Public Secondary Education 



First 
Year's 
Class 



Second 
Year's 
Class 



Third 
Year's 
Class 



The Earliest Harvard Schedule- 

Monday: Logic, Physics, Disputes. 

Tuesday: Logic, Physics, Disputes. 

Wednesday: Greek etymology, syntax, Precepts of 
Grammar. 

Thursday: Hebrew grammar, Bible practice, East- 
ern tongues. 

Friday: Rhetoric, declamations,^ vacat rhetoricis 
studiis. 

Saturday: Divinity, catechetical commonplaces, 
History, Nature of plants. 

Monday and Tuesday: Ethics, Politics and Disputes. 
Wednesday: Greek Prosidia and Dialectics, Poesy, 

Nonnus, Duport "or the like." 
Thursday: Chaldae, Ezra and Daniel. 
Friday and Saturday: Continuation, respectively, of 
i first year's courses. 3 

Monday and Tuesday: Arithmetic, Geometry, 

Astronomy, Disputes. 
Wednesday: "Perfect their theory and exercise 

style. Composition, Imitation, Epitome, both in 

prose and verse." 
Thursday: Syriac, Trastius, New Testament. 
Friday and Saturday: Continuation, respectively, of 
i earlier courses. ■* 

This is the entire program of study of the only college 
in America at the time. It is top-heavy with dead 
language and padded with disputations and religious, or 
quasi-religious, literary material. The program may 
have contained good material for the training of clergy- 
men, but there was little in it to attract others than this 
class. What wonder that boys revolted! What wonder 
that preparatory schools dwindled in attendance! What 
wonder that towns evaded the law requiring the erection 
of schools whose ways led only to this goal! What 

1 Meriwether, op. cit., p. 52. 

2 Once monthly. 

3 Continuation of courses given on Friday and Saturday in the earlier year. 

4 Continuation of courses given on Friday and Saturday in the earlier years. 



The Colonial Latin School 23 

wonder that special privileges and legal exemptions had 
to be offered by the town authorities to tempt men to 
engage in the calling of grammar-school teaching! The 
secondary school of the day was out of time with the 
interests of life. Three times before 1800 the General 
Court of Massachusetts increased the fine on towns that 
neglected to maintain a Latin school according to law.^ 

Many other laws less drastic in nattire but all showing 
the solicitude of the lawmakers for the perpetuation of 
learning were likewise enacted during this period previous 
to the Revolutionary War. For example, in 1652 the 
General Court gave voice to this fear: "for the better 
discharge of our trust for the next generation and so to 
posterity, seeing that the first families do wear away 
apace and that it grows more and more difficult to fill 
places of most eminence as they are empty or wanting; 
and this court finding by manifest experience that though 
the number of scholars at our college doth increase, yet 
as soon as they grow up ready for public use they leave 
the country and seek for and accept employment else- 
where, so that if timely provision be not made it will 
tend much to the disparagement, if not to the ruin of the 
Commonwealth. It is therefore ordered and hereby 
enacted by this court that a voluntary collection be 
commended to the inhabitants for the support of Harvard 
college."^ 

It is evident, too, that private bequests and gifts for 
schools were decreasing in numbers and that the funds 
from earlier sources of this kind were being diverted, for 
in 167 1 a law was thought necessary "that the gifts and 
legacies given to college or schools shall be truly and 

1 In 1671 the fine was advanced from five pounds to ten pounds. In 1683 it was 
increased to twenty pounds; and in 17 18 to thirty pounds. See Hindsale's Docu- 
ments, Rept. Secretary of Interior for 1892-93, Vol. 5., pt. 2., pp. 1232 #. 

2Hinsdale, op. cil., p. 1232. 



24 Public Secondary Education 

faithfully disposed of according to the true and declared 
intent of the donors."^ 

Nevertheless the schools declined steadily, until it 
truly seemed that the fears of the fathers would be 
realized, and that learning would cease to exist among 
them. Nor is the explanation of this declension difficult 
to find — the schools no longer served to meet social 
needs. What the majority of parents desired was an 
education that would fit their children in more practical 
ways than the Latin school was doing. A belief gradually 
grew up that a rigidly prescribed classical course was an 
expensive luxury. Indeed, some towns were even more 
outspoken, and openly complained that the type of school 
required by law actually prevented their children from 
getting an education. What was wanted was a school 
that would touch daily life — and touch it in more than 
one place. The existing type of school satisfied few of 
any class. For the well-to-do whose boys desired a 
thorough preparation for college, the later grammar 
schools were considered inefficient and weak. Few 
really capable teachers of Latin and Greek were procur- 
able — especially in the smaller and more remote towns. 
For the boys who had no college ideal ahead of them the 
little Latin that was taught in the schools was a waste 
and an infringement upon time that could be better 
employed. Consequently, between the two dissatisfied 
factions the public grammar school was in serious danger 
of being abandoned altogether. Only the law with its 
penalties saved it from this fate, and at best it enjoyed 
a precarious existence during the rest of its days — that 
is, until it was superseded by the modem high school. 

In the meantime the majority of such youths as sought 
admission to college or the study of the classics as merely 

1 op. cit., p. 1233. 



The Colonial Latin School 25 

an element in a liberal education acquired this training 
(save in the few towns in which efficient Latin schools 
were still maintained) through private tutors, or in 
private academies. These types of schools will be dis- 
cussed later. Suffice it to say here that they served a 
noble mission in keeping alive the spark of interest 
in secondary education during the long dark period of 
declension of the public secondary schools. 

In the old colonial schools the school day was long and 
the vacations were few and short. At the outset the 
school was expected to continue almost uninterruptedly 
six days in the week during the full twelve months. 
The daily hours were from nine to twelve o'clock in the 
morning and from two to five o'clock in the afternoon. 
Sundays were taken up with attendance on religious 
services during a goodly portion of the day. Not infre- 
quently other than Latin students were admitted to the 
grammar schools, and in consequence the master often 
employed an assistant or usher to aid him. In this case 
the master usually taught the language and perhaps the 
more advanced work in English, while the usher devoted 
his time to the yoimger pupils and to giving instruction 
in the elements of learning. 

Salaries were small, ranging from twenty to seventy 
pounds a year. These were often supplemented by fees 
or presents from the children, by the allowance of a 
residence, rent free, and by the grant of a garden plot 
or other lands by the towns. The frequent mention 
made in the old chronicles to a grant of twenty pounds 
or thirty pounds seems to indicate that these salaries were 
the most common ones paid. Although these amounts 
in colonial days had a purchasing value far beyond what 
they would have to-day, still then, as now, salaries were 
grossly inadequate and unjust. This fact no doubt 



26 Public Secondary Education 

accounts, in part, for the small number of men who 
entered this vocation. Moreover, very often the salary 
was paid not in cash but in products of the farms or 
gardens, though this was a common practice in all transac- 
tions in those days and, save in the inconvenience, worked 
no hardship. An interesting item in the records of the 
Roxbury school for 1668 shows that the master was to be 
paid for his services twenty-five pounds — "three fourths 
in Indian com and peas and one fomth in barley, all good 
and merchantable at prices current." ^ 

The number of pupils who attended the Latin schools 
seems to have varied greatly with the different towns and 
the times. Generally five or ten were a minimum, while 
not infrequently the number reached one himdred.^ Girls 
were not, of course, admitted to the study of the real 
secondary subjects, and generally not even to the ele- 
mentary work given in the grammar schools. An early 
record of Dorchester shows that the subject of co- 
education was one that had arisen at the foimding of 
its school, and that its settlement was left to the select- 
men, who decided adversely to the girls. It was almost 
one hundred and fifty years later, — that is, in 1784 — that 
Dorchester finally gave them the same privileges in 
secondary education as the boys.* Even then, the time 
in which they might attend was limited to the summer 
months. 

Some other towns, it is true, were sHghtly more ad- 
vanced than this, for from an early date they allowed 
girls to attend the schools, provided there was accommo- 
dation for them without in any way interfering with the 
rights and privileges of the boys. However, even where 
girls were admitted, in most cases they were instructed 

1 Dillaway, op. cit., pp. 30-31. 

2 Brown, op. cit., p. 125. 

3 Dexter, op, cit., p. 426. 



The Colonial Latin School 27 

in classes segregated from the boys. It was not, in fact, 
until near Revolutionary times that girls received any 
but tolerant recognition in secondary education. Ports- 
mouth, New Hampshire, had a distinctively girls' school 
in 1773, ^ and Boston accorded girls the privilege of attend- 
ing the boys' school in 1789, — though the instruction 
was given separately. 

This, then, was the general situation of secondary edu- 
cation in Massachusetts down to the close of the colonial 
period. Much more attention has been given in this 
treatise to the educational history of this colony than can, 
or need, be given to any other colony. This has been 
done for two reasons: first, Massachusetts is the mother 
of secondary education in many other portions of America, 
and, secondly, the idea of public secondary education in 
America at this period foimd almost sole support in 
Massachusetts and the neighboring colonies. 

When one tiums to the early history of the Plymouth 
Colony one finds, however, that there attention to edu- 
cation was, at first, slight indeed. It was not imtil 
1658, — that is, thirty-eight years from the founding of 
settlements here, — that the question of public schools 
was even formally considered.^ Even then the General 
Court only suggested that towns "ought" to erect free 
schools. Similar efforts were made in 1663, but without 
success. In 1673 the General Court voted to appropriate 
to the support of a free school, if erected, the proceeds 
derived from the fisheries "at the cape." This stmi 
amoimted to thirty-three pounds, and with it a secondary 
or Latin school was opened. In 1677, towns of fifty 
families were authorized to erect grammar schools and to 
levy a tax of twelve poimds annually upon the people of 
the town. The colony was to distribute funds from the 

1 Ibid., p. 427. 

2 Hinsdale, op. cit., pp. 1630 ff. 



28 Public Secondary Education 

fisheries to all such towns as accepted the provisions of the 
law, and the remaining support was to come by volun- 
tary contributions from those who sent children to the 
school.^ However, the Latin school did not flourish, since 
its work was even more out of harmony with the life of the 
fishing interests here than it was with the more varied 
ideals found in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Never- 
theless, v/hen the two colonies later became merged and 
the school laws of Massachusetts were extended over Ply- 
mouth, there was the nominal pretense, at least, of keep- 
ing up the schools, but with very barren returns. 

The early history of secondary education in the Con- 
necticut and New Haven colonies is a close dupHcate 
of that of Massachusetts.^ The records show that Hart- 
ford voted thirty pounds for the support of a Latin school 
in 1642, but there is good reason to believe that the school 
was in existence earlier than this date. The support 
of the school was to be secured partly from public ftmds 
and partly from private bequests. This was the same 
arrangement many towns in Massachusetts had. In 1650 
there was drawn up the famous Codification of the Laws of 
Connecticut. In principles and in precepts these laws 
followed very closely the laws of Massachusetts. What 
is of especial interest to us, however, is that the Massachu- 
setts school law of 1647 was copied into the Connecticut 
Code almost in toto and verbatim. After this date every 
town of one hundred families was required to maintain a 
Latin school. In this the elements of Latin and Greek 
were to be taught, and, it was suggested, also the begin- 
nings of Hebrew. Like its prototype, this law also 
imposed a fine upon towns that failed to comply with its 
mandates. But, as in Massachusetts, and for like reasons, 
the law was ignored and evaded. From time to time the 

1 op. cit., pp. 1630 #.; also Dexter, op. cit., p. 39. 

2 Brown, op. cit., pp. 44#.; also Hinsdale, op. cit., pp. 1245 ff. 



The Colonial Latin School 29 

fine here was increased, and more strenuous efforts were 
made to secure the enforcement of the law, but without 
much real success. 

Meanwhile, in 1638, New Haven was founded, and 
within four years had erected a Latin school. To this 
school Mr. Ezekiel Cheever was called as master. Here 
he remained ten or twelve years, and it was here that he 
brought out his Accidence.^ During his incumbency the 
school seems to have flourished, but its high rank was not 
long maintained. It is very probable, indeed, that his 
departure from New Haven was due, in part at least, 
to the indifference and the lack of moral support accorded 
the school by his townsmen. 

Other towns in the colony likewise established Latin 
schools, but the early enthusiasm for them soon cooled. 
In 1660 all the towns abandoned their separate imder- 
takings and united in founding a "colony grammar 
school." 2 This school endured but two years. At that 
time, in 1662, the New Haven Colony was absorbed into 
the Connecticut Colony and came under her laws. From 
this time to the Revolution the history of secondary 
education in Connecticut followed the same precarious 
course it did in Massachusetts. Moreover, the cur- 
riculum, the administration, the textbooks, the methods, 
and the general spirit of all these schools are so similar 
as to call for no specific discussion here. The point to 
be kept in mind is that all were out of touch with social 
interests and social needs, and all, consequently, gradually 
declined near, if not quite, to complete disruption. 

In Rhode Island, the non-conformist colony of the 

1 It is a little uncertain when Mr. Cheever first began to teach in New Haven. 
He left there, however, in 1650, spent the next twenty years in Ipswich and Charles- 
town, and became master of the Boston Latin School in 1670, where he served 
continuously for thirty-eight years. He died in office in 1708, at the age of ninety- 
four. 

2 Brown, op. cit„ p. 45. 



30 Public Secondary Education 

non-conformist colonies, there seems to have been little 
unity of opinion or harmony of action. The educational 
data are few indeed. Apparently no attempt was made 
previous to 1800 to erect a system of pubUc secondary 
schools within that territory. In that year each town 
was required by law to maintain one or more free schools 
at public expense.^ Previous to this time all education 
was private. 

Of the other New England States, New Hampshire was 
a part of Massachusetts imtil 1680 and therefore has no 
history of her own imtil after that date. By that time the 
secondary schools had practically ceased to exist save 
in the more populous and wealthy towns, so that down 
through colonial times New Hampshire may be truly said 
to have had no real public secondary schools. Still her 
laws provided for such schools, and in name they did exist. 

Maine and Vermont likewise have no history of their 
own during this period, and may be omitted from con- 
sideration. 

In the middle colonies almost no thought or attention 
seems to have been given to secondary education during 
the colonial period. New York, New Jersey, and Dela- 
ware each had fairly good elementary schools at an early 
date, but all were supported and administered by the 
Church, or by private and cooperative effort. The first 
school of secondary grade in New York — at least the 
first publicly supported secondary school — did not 
arise imtil 1710.^ This was established to teach Latin, 
Greek, and mathematics, but seems not to have had much 
influence or permanency.^ 

In Pennsylvania, William Penn at the outset gave 

1 Dexter, op. cit., pp. SI-S2. 

Z Ibid., p. 77. 

3 Another school appears to have been established in 1732, which, after a series 
of changes, is thought to have furnished the nucleus from which Columbia College 
sprang m 1754. 



The Colonial Latin School 31 

great encouragement to education and to schools, but in 
the later charters not so idealistic and liberal a spirit is 
shown. However, in 1689 the Friends' Public School 
was opened in Philadelphia. In 1697 this school was 
chartered as the William Pemi Charter School. It was a 
school of elementary and secondary grade, was open to 
youths of both sexes, and was to be free to those who 
were too poor to pay tuition.^ Later, however, this 
school became purely a sectarian school, its organization 
and administration passing entirely out of the hands of 
public officials. It still holds high rank, but no longer 
comes within the scope of this discussion. 

In the South the educational efforts have, until a 
comparatively recent day, been largely directed to the 
establishment and support of church or private schools. 
In colonial times, few indeed were the attempts made to 
set up either elementary or secondary schools at public 
expense. In each one of the colonies laws were passed 
from time to time encouraging education, but all laws 
pertaining to public schools were permissive in character 
and hence produced few or no results. In all parts of 
the South appeared from time to time grammar schools 
endowed by wills, grants, and gifts. Many of these 
received charters from the provincial government and, to 
this extent, became quasi-public schools. Still they 
are not of the same character as the Latin school of New 
England, and scarcely come within the scope of a treatise 
that professes to deal only with public secondary educa- 
tion. The Virginia legislature had, however, in 1660, 
enacted a law providing for a "college and a free school," 
but neither institution materialized. Likewise Maryland, 
by law, in 1696, sought to establish public schools, but 
nothing came of the effort. 

1 Brown, op. ciU, pp. 54, 74; also Dexter, op. cit., p. 60. 



32 Public Secondary Education 

South of Virginia there were no schools until after 
1700!^ In South Carolina, in 1701, a free school was set 
up in Charleston. This was founded by a gift of money 
from several charitable persons, and the state granted it a 
charter. The master was required to be a member of the 
Chiurch of England and to be able to teach Latin, Greek, 
and mathematics. He was to receive an income of one 
hundred poimds per year out of the "public treasury," 
the balance of the salary being made up by fees.^ A law 
of 1722 authorized justices to "purchase land, erect a 
free school in each county and precinct, and to assess the 
expenses upon the lands and slaves within their respective 
jurisdictions." "At the close of the Revolutionary 
War South Carolina had eleven public and three char- 
itable grammar schools, besides eight schools of a private 
nature."^ These, however, seem to have been nearer 
the type of the old academies than of the old Latin school. 
Nor do they seem to have been public secondary schools 
in the sense in which we now use that expression. 

In North Carolina conditions were similar. In 1745 a 
law authorizing the erection of free schools was passed, 
but, as its provisions were solely permissive, little was 
accomplished. Here, as in other parts of the South, 
semi-religious, semi-public schools arose that served in 
place of grammar schools, but which in reality were 
varying forms of the old academy. 

Reverting to Virginia, one finds during the Revolu- 
tionary period, that is in 1779, a most comprehensive 
system of elementary, secondary, and higher education 
proposed by Thomas Jefferson. Nothing came of his 
efforts at that particular time, but in 1796 his ideas were 

1 Dexter, op. cit., p. 67. 

2 Ibid., p. 69. 

3 Ibid., p. 70. 



The Colonial Latin School 33 

embodied into law. However, since this act was per- 
missive and not at all mandatory, Jefferson's advanced, 
though cumbrous, ideas were never put into practice. 

Thus one finds that, at the close of the colonial period, 
public secondary education had, from Maine to Georgia, 
been practically abandoned. Only in the laws of Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire were there 
found mandatory provisions for such schools, and, as 
has been observed, even here (save in the larger and 
more law-abiding towns) there was no semblance of 
enforcement of them. Elsewhere, secondary education 
was being given, where given at all, privately, by ministers 
and young college students, or in the semi-religious, 
quasi-private endowed schools or academies. A brief 
svirvey of the work done in these institutions will be the 
aim of the following chapter. 



CHAPTER II 

The Middle Period 

THE next great period of secondary education in the 
United States covers something over one hundred 
years. It extends from late pre-Revolutionary days 
down to, or beyond, the era of the "Common School 
Revival" in the first third of the nineteenth century. 
Its approximate dates may be fixed as 1750 at one end 
of the span and 1850 at the other. It is an important 
century in the development of American ideas, character, 
and institutions; but so far as it bears directly and imme- 
diately on the development of free, public, secondary 
education it is a time that is relatively barren. The 
dominant school of the age was the academy, and this 
in a very limited and general way only may be regarded 
as a public school. Nevertheless in a very true sense 
the academies did serve public educational needs, and a 
complete account of the secondary education in the 
United States could not be given without making con- 
siderable mention of them. They were not always 
supported by a public tax; but neither were the pubHc 
Latin schools during all their history. Their adminis- 
tration was not undertaken by elected public officials; 
but in many of the early grammar schools the control was 
not vested in a body of men elected by all the citizens. 
Tuition fees were charged in most academies; but in this 
respect, too, the practice differs not at all from that found 
in the earlier schools. Indeed, in many ways the academy 
was but a modified type of the Latin school. It arose in 
this transformed shape to fill a social need, and it filled it. 

34 



The Middle Period 35 

We have seen that the New England grammar school 
had, under pressure of the democratic, secular, and 
social changes and demands of the people, gradually lost 
its hold upon society, and had been either abolished 
entirely or else converted (in fact, if not always in name) 
into an elementary school. The old Latin school was, 
despite its original aim, aristocratic in nature. It served 
only the interest of those who had before them a rela- 
tively long period of study, and whose ultimate vocation 
was to lie in the professional fields. Six years in the 
Latin school could hardly be afforded by the majority 
of youths. Even six years spent in this way qualified 
one neither generally nor specifically for active life, unless 
the grammar-school course was supplemented by an 
additional period of study in the college. The new social 
conditions called for new social agencies, and especially 
for schools with a program of studies of greater scope 
and flexibility. These were not publicly provided, and 
consequently people secured what they wanted through 
other channels. 

The old statutes of New England requiring town Latin 
schools still stood. The officials often sought their 
perfect enforcement, though few changes had been made 
in the laws to meet the changed social needs. There 
was a wide gulf between the letter of the law and the 
spirit of the age, but few legal attempts were made to 
close it. Nevertheless, in the last analysis, it is free 
public opinion that really enforces law under any demo- 
cratic government. Where the sentiments of a people 
are indifferent or opposed to legislation of a particular 
kind all the machinery of government can never secure 
more than tacit obedience to the letter of the law. The 
spirit will be broken though the precept be enforced. 

This was the case in New England over a considerable 



36 Public Secondary Education 

portion of the history of its grammar schools. Towns 
disobeyed the law deliberately, and found it cheaper to 
pay the specified fine than to keep the school.^ In many 
instances the school was open during the required nimiber 
of months, but was held successively in different sections 
of the town — a brief period in each. Few pupils thus 
attended regularly for more than a few weeks at a time. 
The emphasis was placed not on the study of Latin and 
Greek as in the earlier grammar schools, but upon the 
elementary subjects. Not many pupils, in fact, had any 
desire or inclination for the classics. Scholarship de- 
clined. The necessity of teaching the veriest rudiments 
of elementary branches made grammar-school teaching 
unattractive to most college graduates; they sought 
service in other fields. The effect on the schools was 
natural. As in the realm of physics, so here, action and 
reaction were equal and opposite in direction. There 
were few scholarly teachers in the schools to inspire pupils 
to advanced study, and, conversely, the small nimiber 
of really ambitious pupils made the calling distasteful 
to the ambitious young men. All these conditions could 
but accentuate the growing weakness of the grammar 
school and aid in its decline. 

Still there were families that looked with regret upon 
the disintegration of the old type of school. The col- 
leges continued to require for admission the old inflexible 
Latin preparation. If a boy were to enter at all, he needs 
must obtain this preliminary training somewhere. For 
a time this need was met by the private tutor, who very 
often was the minister of the town, or some young col- 
lege man who gladly accepted the invitation to earn a 
few shillings during his vacation periods or while waiting 

1 See Martin, Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School System, for a full 
account of these changes. 



The Middle Period 37 

to get established in his profession. But the demand 
steadily increased for schools that should do this work 
and at the same time be able to furnish a more liberal 
course of instruction in the English branches for young 
men whose vocations in life were to be non-professional. 
Out of these demands arose the American academy. 

The first institution of this kind and name in America 
was that fathered by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia. 
As early as 1743 his practical mind had formulated the 
idea, but conditions were not ripe for its implanting. Six 
years later, however, his hope was realized. In 1749 the 
Academy and Charitable School of Philadelphia was 
foimded. In 1753 it was incorporated with three semi- 
distinct departments, — namely the Latin, the English, 
and the Mathematical. Each department had its sep- 
arate master, and, contrary to Franklin's wish, the 
Latin master held chief rank. The school was endowed 
chiefly by private contributions, but the city contributed 
out of the general treasury two hundred pounds the first 
year and pledged the public tax for one hundred pounds 
additional each year for five years. Here the public 
interest ended. The control of the school was vested in a 
body of trustees selected by the contributors, and this 
body was to be self-perpetuating. The school was open 
to all boys on equal terms. Its aims are set forth in the 
petition presented by the promoters when they sought 
aid from the city government. They are as follows:^ 

1. To give the youth an opportunity to receive a good education 
at home, where not only a considerable expense can be saved but 
where a "stricter eye" can be kept over his morals by his friends 
and relatives. 

2. To fit a number of young men for the magistracies and other 
public offices of trust. 

1 Adapted from the quotations given by Brown, The Making of Our Middle 
Schools, p. 185. 



38 Public Secondary Education 

3. To train teachers for the elementary schools. 

4. To attract students to Philadelphia from the surrounding 
communities and thus help trade and business. 

"As to their [the pupils'] studies, it would be well if they could 
be taught everything that is useful, and everything that is orna- 
mental. But art is long and their time is short. It is therefore 
proposed that they learn those things that are likely to be most 
useful and ornamental; regard being had to the several professions 
for which they are intended." ^ 

English subjects were especially emphasized. Each 
pupil was taught the "three R's," together with the ele- 
ments of grammar and composition, geometry and 
astronomy. History was in particular favor, and 
through this subject it was expected that introduction 
woiild be given to "almost all kinds of useful knowl- 
edge." Indeed, "geography, chronology, ancient cus- 
toms, oratory, civil government, logic, language, and even 
morality and religion were to find their first entrance 
into the attention and interest of the students through 
the channel of history. "^ 

Natural history, agriculture, horticulture, commerce, 
industry, and mechanics were also to be taught. The 
school was moreover to cultivate "that benignity of 
mind which ... is the foimdation of what is called 
good breeding." 

In 1754 a fourth department was added to the academy, 
— the Philosophical. In 1755 there was a reorganization 
of the work, and henceforth the Latin and Philosophical 
departments were regarded as constituting a college, 
and the English and Mathematical departments, the 
academy. The school was highly successful from the 
first. Tradition and fashion were too strong, however, 
to hold the Latin and the Philosophical departments to 
the new ideals, and they soon went their own superior 

1 Taken from Franklin's sketch of a plan, as quoted by Brown, op. cit., p. l80. 

2 Brown, op, cit., p. i8i. 



The Middle Period 39 

way, leaving the English school to become little more 
than an appendage to the classical school. 

Here then is seen a type of institution that was, at 
the outset, distinctively different from the old grammar 
school. There was a difference in aim, scope, support, 
control, administration, and constituency. Indeed, the 
close similarities to the old type of school were few in 
nimiber and difficult to discover. The old aim was solely 
to fit for college ; the new was to equip for varied vocations 
in life. The old curriculum was limited and fixed; the 
new was liberal, and, within limits, was adapted to 
individual needs. In the old school "Latin probably 
constituted nineteen twentieths" of aU the school work.^ 
In the new academy Latin was not necessarily studied at 
all; but in place of it, or alongside of it, there were offered 
(at least in theory) the elements of all the knowledge 
accessible to the age. The Latin school was supported, 
controlled, and administered by the town; the academy 
was subsidized by the government, but was directed solely 
through private authority. The old Latin school artic- 
ulated below with the dame school, and above with the 
college ; the academy articulated with the home and with 
life. Finally, instead of drawing its pupils almost solely 
from the homes of the wealthy, the cultiu"ed, and the 
professional classes, as did the Latin school, the academy 
enrolled among its numbers the rich and the poor, the 
orthodox and the heterodox, the sons of the minister and 
lawyer and the sons of the farmer and tradesman. In 
short, the new type of school was democratic and popular; 
the old type was aristocratic and unpopular. 

Nevertheless, with the rise of the academy the old 
school did not entirely die out. In Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, and New Hampshire the statutes still 

1 Ibid., p. 133. 



40 Public Secondary Education 

required the erection and maintenance of Latin schools, 
but after 1750 these continued to decline rapidly and to 
serve fewer and fewer community needs. It is true that 
some of the southern states — particularly Maryland and 
South Carolina — did, after this date, attempt to establish 
public grammar schools modeled on the laws of New 
England, but their efforts came to no practical end. 

From 1750 well down into the nineteenth century 
the academy may almost be said to have furnished the 
only secondary schooling in America.^ Every section 
of the coxmtry — especially after the Revolutionary War 
— took up the idea with enthusiasm. In New England,^ 
the movement started with the erection of the Dum- 
mer School at Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1761. This 
school was founded solely by private endowment, and 
was a close approximation to the old-time Latin school. 
It was not supported or controlled by the town, but its 
aims and scope were as typically narrow as those of the 
town grammar schools. This school therefore partakes 
of the nature of both the old and the new institutions, 
and may be truly regarded as the expression of the halting 
ideas of this transition period. In 1782 the school was 
incorporated and was transformed in fact, as well as in 
name, into the Dummer Academy. 

Meanwhile a truly typical academy of the best kind 
had been established by the Phillips family at Andover, 
Massachusetts. This was in 1778, in the very midst 
of the Revolutionary period. In 1782 Phillips Exeter 
Academy was founded at Exeter, New Hampshire. Both 
became models for other communities to copy. The 
aim of these schools was set forth in the constitution that 

1 For a good account of this whole period see Mayo, Public Schools during 
Revolutionary Times. 

2 See Allen, "Old Academies," as published in the New Englander Magazirie, 
January, 1885. 



The Middle Period 41 

was drawn for their governance, and was, indeed, an 
admirable one. It was to " lay the foundation of a public 
free school or academy for the purpose of instructing youth 
not only in English and Latin grammar, writing, arith- 
metic, and those sciences which they are commonly 
taught, but more especially to learn them the just end and 
real business of living." Hence "the first and principal 
object of the institution is the promotion of true piety and 
virtue; the second, instruction in the English, Latin, and 
Greek languages, together with writing, arithmetic, music, 
and the art of speaking; the third, practical geometry, 
logic, and geography; and fourth, such other liberal arts 
and sciences or languages as opportunity and ability may 
hereafter admit or as the trustees shall direct."^ The 
majority of the trustees were not to be residents of the 
town in which the school was located. Pupils were 
admitted from "all quarters" of the country, and the 
only admission requirement was the ability to read 
English well. The master was expected "critically and 
constantly to observe the variety of their [pupils'] natural 
tempers and solicitously endeavor to bring them under 
such discipline as may tend most effectively to promote 
their own satisfaction and the happiness of others."^ 
Here is the embodiment in concrete form of the new 
principle and the new spirit. The aim is first to make 
the man and then to train the scholar. The gates of the 
school are thrown open wide to receive any who wish to 
come, whatever be his condition, his resources, or his 
aim. Tuition fees there are indeed, but such were 
required in every Latin school. Besides, in comparison 
with the fees demanded in the old type of school the 
academy fees were small. 

i Constitution of Andover Academy, as quoted by Dr. Brown, op. cit., p. 195. 
2 Brown, op. cit., p. 198, quoting from the constitution. 



42 Public Secondary Education 

To teach the value of righteousness and the charm of 
virtue; to induct a youth into the literary and scientific 
wealth of the race; to train for service to others through 
self -activity were fundamental principles of every worthy 
academy. In such, too, the first efforts in the American 
schools were made to discover the natural bent and 
capacity of the pupil and to graft on these. With the 
academies begins the effort to discover a pupil to himself; 
to fit him to get the most satisfaction out of life and to 
put the most service into it; to be an individual with 
individual tastes, interests, and ideals and at the same 
time to be an active, loyal, efficient member of the social 
whole. No longer is the aim solely to elevate the few to 
positions of commanding dignity, but to raise the many 
to a slightly higher plane. No longer are scholars to be 
cast in the same narrow mold, but the forms are to be 
varied in shapes and sizes. No longer is a liberal edu- 
cation to be synonymous with the ability to imitate 
Cicero or to peruse Homer in original Greek. If there 
still is no royal road to learning, each person is at least 
permitted to hew out his way by the route that suits 
him best. From this time forth secondary education 
in the United States was never synonymous with mere 
classical study, nor did its course always lead ultimately 
and inevitably to the college doors. Latin and Greek 
continued to have their places in the program of studies, 
and for a long time hereafter enjoyed the prestige that 
comes with longevity and tradition, but they never 
again monopolized the field as in the pre-academy days. 

For a time after the academy movement started the 
colleges adhered to their old admission requirements, and 
sought to stem the tide. Under this policy Latin in the 
secondary schools became a "protected industry," and 
its study was pursued by all whose goal was the university. 



The Middle Period 43 

However, the rise of new colleges, built on the foundation 
of a more Hberal choice of subject-matter, together with 
the accelerated force of the secondary schools themselves, 
gradually broke down the old barriers and forced the 
acceptance of the modem spirit upon the conservative 
institutions. 

In this way the academies served the welfare of pos- 
terity. In this way much of the progress of secondary 
education has been made in the past. The spirit of the 
age was opposed to maintaining longer at public expense 
a secondary school of the old type. The returns on the 
investment did not justify the outlay. Then, when 
public favor in all kinds of education was waning, the 
more liberal and vital work of the academies revived 
interest in secondary schools and led, in time, to the 
reestabUshment of such schools as a function of the state, 
to be supported and directed by the state. 

There were few schools of this type established in 
America previous to the Revolutionary War — either in 
fact or in name. Those that did exist were of an entirely 
different character from those of later days. These later 
ones were schools of general culture. The earlier ones 
were not. Those founded after the Revolutionary War 
fitted for college as well as for life. Those foimded "pre- 
vious to the middle of the eighteenth century had no 
connection with preparation for college. They repre- 
sented the intrusion of a different view of the function of 
the school. They smacked of trade. " ^ 

It is seen, therefore, that though the New England 
grammar school had woefully declined in the Northeast, 
and that previous to the Revolution no colony except 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire had 
any kind of a public secondary school supported by the 

1 Brown, op. cit., p. 134. 



44 Public Secondary Education 

people and reqtiired by law, still secondary education 
was not wholly neglected. " There were schools of many 
sorts supported by the Church, by colonial legislative 
grants, by taxation on the people, by private corporations, 
by associations of neighbors, and by family tutorship 
in all the American colonies before that date, but in no 
colony beyond the Hudson was there any system."^ 

Some grammar schools founded in South Carolina just 
previous to the Revolution are, in fact, in existence 
to-day, and constitute a part of the public-school system. 
For example, the school founded by the Wenyaw Indigo 
Society in 1753 at Georgetown, South Carolina, is a 
case in hand. This school existed for many years as a 
seminary, then declined, and as late as 1886 was presented 
by the "club" to the commimity for a public graded 
school.^ There are similar cases throughout the whole 
South. However, at the outbreak of the Revolutionary 
War "there were probably less than 100 academies or 
secondary schools of real importance in all the thirteen 
colonies.^ The war caused many of these to suspend, 
and some ceased to exist absolutely. Still education went 
on. Between 1776 and 1786 five new colleges were 
founded in the United States, and from 1784 to 1796 
nine others were established.* 

Secondary education must have been keeping pace, for 

1 U.S. Com. Reports, 1893-94, Vol. I, p. 675. 

2 Ibid., p. 692. 

3 Ibid., p. 712. 

4 The following, taken from U.S. Com. Reports, 1908, pp. 648 #., is the list of 
colleges founded previous to 1800, together with their dates of opening: 

1. Harvard (Mass.), 1638. (Founded in 1636.) 

2. William and Mary (Va.), 1693. 

3. Yale (Conn.), 1701. 

4. University of Pennsylvania, 1740. 

5. Princeton (N.J.), 1746. 

6. Washington and Lee (Va.), 1749. 

7. Moravian Seminary and College for Women (Pa.), 1749. 

8. Columbia (N.Y.), I7S4- 

9. Brown (R.I.), 1746. 

10. Rutgers (N.J.), 1766. 

11. Hampden-Sidney (Va.), 1776. 

12. Dickinson College (Pa.), 1783. 



The Middle Period 45 

colleges cannot thrive unless preparatory schools furnish 
them a body of students. 

With the conversion of colonies into states during the 
period from 1776 to 1781, constitutions were drawn to 
serve as the foundations of the new government.^ In 
these frameworks of government there was a diversity of 
treatment respecting education.^ Massachusetts and 
New Hampshire gave full attention to the subject and 
provided for a continuance of their old policies. Con- 
necticut and Rhode Island perpetuated, through their 
charters, their former institutions and ideas, — Connec- 
ticut having at this time, thinks Professor Hinsdale, 
perhaps the best educated body of citizens in America. 
New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, 
and South Carolina made no mention of education 
in their first constitutions. Georgia declared education 
shoiild be promoted. Pennsylvania provided that schools 
for "the poor" should be established by the legislature as 
soon as convenient, while South Carolina laid down the 
general principle that "schools should be established." 

Many of the earliest constitutions were, however, 
hastily drawn, and proved to be not properly adapted to 
the changed social and political needs. In consequence, 
soon after the close of the war many of these were amended 

13. Washington College (Md.), 1783. 

14. University of Nashville (Tenn.), 1785. 

15. Western tJniversity of Pennsylvania, 1786. ^ 

16. Annapolis Naval College, 1789. 

17. College of Charleston (S.C), 1791. 

18. Williams (Mass.), 1793. 

19. University of Tennessee, 1794. 

20. Greenville and Tusculum College (Tenn.), 1794. 

21. Bowdoin College (Me.). (Founded 1794, but opened 1802.) 

22. University of Carolina, 1795. 

23. Union College (N.Y.), 1795. 

24. Washington College (Tenn.), 1795. 

1 It will be recalled that this action was taken by all the colonies save Rhode 
Island and Connecticut. These states continued in force their old colonial charters 
— even well down into the nineteenth century. 

2 The following statements are adapted from an article on the "Constitutional 
Provisions respecting Education," in the American Journal of Education, Vol. 17, 
pp. 83 ff. 



46 Public Secondary Edtication 

and revised. In these new drafts education received 
more consideration. 

Moreover, before 1812 five new states — Vermont, 
Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, and Louisiana — were ad- 
mitted to the Union on an equality with the other and 
older states. It is significant to note, therefore, that 
between 1783 and 18 12 ten states placed educational 
provisions in their constitutions. Few of the sections 
were specific and definite, but they at least laid upon the 
legislatures the duty of encouraging and fostering educa- 
tion and schools, and in so doing revealed which way 
public opinion was moving. From 18 12 to the present 
time (save in the constitution of Illinois, drawn in 18 18) 
no new or revised constitution of any state in the Union 
has failed to contain articles or sections pertaining to 
the question of public schools. 

There is nothing in these constitutional provisions that 
bears directly upon secondary education; but, after all, 
the basis for all such later public schools is foimd in them. 
The old Latin schools were planned and developed from 
above. They grew out of the demands of a real or ideal 
college and were founded to furnish a student body to 
the higher institutions of learning. The academies 
were fimdamentally and essentially independent of, 
and detached from, all other schools — above or below. 
They existed by virtue of their own right and merit. 
The later secondary schools of a public nature, — that 
is, the public high schools, — in general developed from be- 
low, and in most states owe their very existence to the 
constitutional provisions relating to common schools. 
Hence there is a deep significance and an auspicious fore- 
shadowing in the educational provisions found in both 
the earlier and the later constitutions of our states. 

Supplementing the action of the various states, the old 



The Middle Period 47 

Confederate Congress lent its influence to the encourage- 
ment of education. The Land Ordinance of 1 7 8 5 provided 
that the sixteenth section of every township of land ceded 
by the individual states to the United States should be 
reserved and rededicated by the central government for 
the support of public schools.^ Two years later the same 
body further immortalized itself by passing the famous 
Ordinance of 1787. The crowning sentence of this act 
reads: "Religion, morality, and knowledge being neces- 
sary to good government and the happiness of mankind, 
schools and the means of education shall forever be 
encouraged." The United States government has never 
departed from the principles enunciated in this Ordinance. 

In 1787, when at Marietta, Ohio, the first settlement 
in the Northwest was made, the town was given a sum 
of two himdred dollars for the support of schools and a 
minister.2 This amount, it is true, was not paid directly 
by the government but by Mannaseh Cutler who, at the 
time, was the chief intermediary between the central 
authority and the pioneers of the Northwest. 

When Ohio was admitted to the Union in 1803, Con- 
gress straightway dedicated the sixteenth section of every 
township to the inhabitants of that township for school 
purposes. When in 18 18 Illinois was made a state this 
policy was slightly modified, so that the sixteenth section 
was given not to the inhabitants of the township but to 
the state at large, to be used, however, only for schools in 
the particular townships in which the designated sections 
of land were located. On the entrance of Michigan into 
the Union in 1837 a third and final change was made in 
the method of distributing school lands. Now they were 
granted collectively to the state as a whole for the "use 

1 Hinsdale, Documents, p. 1269. 

2 Dexter, History of Education in the United States, p. 104. 



48 Public Secondary Education 

of schools" in the state as a whole. This practice has 
ever since been followed.^ 

Common schools — that is to say, elementary schools — 
under governmental support and control began, therefore, 
to develop in every part of the Union shortly subsequent 
to the Revolutionary period. The efforts that formerly 
had been centered on public secondary education were 
now transferred to the lower grade of schools, while in the 
old field the academies dominated almost exclusively. 
Thus, from 1790 to 1840 the two central agencies in 
popular education were the district school on the one hand 
and the endowed academy on the other. 

In no complete and perfect sense, of course, was any 
one of the academies a true public school. Nevertheless 
they pretty largely took the place of the public secondary 
school, and the government in several states made some 
financial provision for their maintenance. Instead of 
contributing annually toward the support of education, 
as the states do to-day, the policy during the period under 
immediate consideration was not infrequently to subsidize 
the academies by paying over to them, once for all, a 
lump sum. Not every private or local ventiure, of course, 
obtained such governmental grants, the general condition 
of receiving them being that the town, cotmty, corporation, 
or other responsible organizers should first raise, as a 
permanent endowment fund, a stim at least equal to that 
solicited from the central government. 

So far as the national and state government did, how- 
ever, subsidize these schools they did it chiefly through 
land grants. Having done this the governments "received 
their applause and withdrew from the stage." Respect- 
ing the administration of the schools thus aided the states 
"asked few questions and imposed few conditions." 

1 Hinsdale, op. cil., p. 127 1. 



The Middle Period 49 

In New England during this period the academy and 
the town grammar school existed side by side. In 1789 
Massachusetts enacted a new law requiring towns of 
two hundred families to support a "grammar master of 
good morals, well instructed in the Latin, Greek, and 
English languages." Respecting the attendance the 
law further provided that "no youth shall be sent to 
such grammar school unless they shall have learned in 
some other school or in some other way to read the Eng- 
lish language by spelling the same, or the selectmen of 
the town where such grammar school is shall direct the 
grammar-school master to receive and instruct such 
youth." "All instructors of youth" were "to take 
diligent care and to exert their best endeavors to impress 
on the mind of the children and youth committed to their 
care and instruction the principles of piety, justice, and 
sacred regard for truth, love for their country, humanity 
and universal benevolence, sobriety, industry and fru- 
gality, chastity, moderation, and temperance, and those 
other virtues which are the ornaments of himian society 
and the basis upon which the republican constitution is 
structured." Only college graduates or those presenting 
certificates "from a learned minister well skilled in the 
Greek and Latin languages, settled in the town where the 
school is proposed to be kept, or two other such ministers 
in the vicinity thereof,"^ shall be permitted to teach in 
the grammar school. 

This law reveals the fact that though the statute might 
regard the grammar school as a school of secondary or 
superior type, as a matter of history such schools in 
Massachusetts in 1789 were of a very elementary grade. 
The law also shows the hold the clergy still had upon the 
administration of secondary education at the time, and 

1 Ibid., pp. 1236 ff- 
5 



50 Public Secondary Education 

the religious, moral, and civil ideals that entered, avowedly 
and specifically, into the spirit of the institution. The 
curriciilum was indeed narrow, but it included vastly 
more than the classics — it included the philosophical 
principles of Hfe. 

Eight years later, in 1797, Massachusetts openly 
avowed her policy of subsidizing privately initiated or 
locally established academies. By doing this she, at 
first sight, seems to have been building up in the state 
two mtitually antagonistic systems of secondary schools, 
but in reality the academy and the grammar school simply 
supplemented the work of each other. 

The conditions in the other New England states at this 
time were similar. For example, after 1798, in Connecti- 
cut the Latin school was no longer legally compulsory, 
but any town, or portion of a town, or portions of two 
or more towns, could by a two-thirds vote of the inhabi- 
tants thereof establish a high school in which the English 
branches, together with Latin and Greek, might be taught.^ 

In New York as early as 1787 power was given the 
legislature to charter academies, and in 1790 the "litera- 
ture fimd" was created which, from that day to this, has 
annually furnished state aid to institutions of secondary 
education. 

In Virginia as early as 1780 the legislature set aside, 
in what is now Kentucky, eight thousand acres of land 
for an academy. Before 1800 there were thirty academies 
in that state ,^ each being given six thousand acres of 
land and the right to raise one thousand dollars in cash 
by means of lotteries. Similar generosity was shown to 
the academies by the other southern and western states. 
It is computed that by 1830 there were in the United 



1 Hinsdale, op. cit., p. 1252. 

2 Dexter, op, cit., p. 126. 



The Middle Period 51 

States approximately 950 incorporated academies of the 
better type. How many there were unincorporated and 
of only a brief span of life there is no way of determining. 
The incorporated schools were distributed as follows i'^ 

State No. State No. 

Maine 32 Pennsylvania 92 

New Hampshire 30 Delaware i 

Vermont 35 Maryland 69 

Massachusetts 83 Virginia 55 

Rhode Island 2 North Carolina 196 

Connecticut 14 South Carolina 32 

New York 57 Georgia 2 

New Jersey 7 The West 233 

Total 950 

By 1850 the number of academies in the United States 
had increased to 6,085.^ These varied widely in numbers 
of teachers, pupils, and resources. They also differed 
from one another very markedly in worth and dignity, — 
some being merely ephemeral and local in character, 
while others were strong, healthy, and widely influential 
The following table shows their status in 1850.^ 

State No. of 

Acad AMIES 

Alabama 166 

Arkansas 90 

California 6 

Columbia, Dist. of 47 

Connecticut 202 

Delaware 65 

Florida 34 

Georgia 219 

Illinois 83 

Indiana 131 

Iowa 33 

Kentucky 330 

Louisiana 143 

Maine 131 

Maryland 223 

Massachusetts 403 

Michigan 37 

Minnesota I 

1 Hinsdale, op. ciL, pp. 1252 ff. 

2 Dexter, op. cit., pp. 94 #. 



No. OF 


No. OF 


Annual Approx- 


Teachers 


Pupils 


imate Income 


380 


8,290 


$ 224,279 


126 


2,407 


34.308 


6 


170 


20,392 


126 


2,333 


84,040 


329 


6,996 


152,120 


94 


2,011 


53.498 


49 


1,251 


22,742 


318 


9.059 


184,849 


160 


4.244 


47,678 


233 


6,185 


73.219 


46 


I, III 


11,180 


600 


12,712 


306,507 


354 


5.328 


283,003 


232 


6,648 


64,966 


503 


10,787 


239.083 


521 


13.436 


354.521 


71 


1,619 


31.953 


I 


12 





52 Public Secondary Education 

State No. of No. of No. of Annual Approx- 

AcADEMiES Teachers Pupils imate Income 

Mississippi 171 297 6,628 $144,732 

Missouri 204 368 8,829 183,403 

New Hampshire 107 183 5,321 52,391 

New Jersey 225 453 9,844 300.242 

New Mexico i i 40 

New York 887 3,136 49,328 1,015,249 

North Carolina 272 403 7,822 222,695 

Ohio 206 474 15,052 201,077 

Oregon 29 44 842 24,495 

Pennsylvania 524 914 23,751 570,501 

Rhode Island 46 75 1,601 37,423 

South Carolina 202 333 7,467 205,489 

Tennessee 264 404 9,928 175,926 

Texas 97 137 3,389 77,732 

Utah 13 2,221 

Vermont 118 257 6,864 56,159 

Virginia 317 547 9,068 351,007 

Wisconsin 58 86 2,723 19,899 

Total 6,085 12,260 263,096 $5,831,179 

The usual age at which pupils entered these academies 
was, on the average, about nine years; but oftentimes 
children of seven were found in them.^ 

Meanwhile, down to 1824 the old New England Latin 
school continued to decline. In that year Massachusetts 
by law freed all towns having less than five thousand 
inhabitants from the obligation of maintaining a public 
secondary school. Only seven towns in the state con- 
tained a population in excess of this number, and thus, 
legally, there were only seven public high schools required 
in the whole Commonwealth. Fortunately several other 
towns legally exempt felt the moral obHgation and 
continued their schools in existence. 

The town grammar or Latin school of 1647 ^^^ thus 
gradually deteriorated in character, dignity, and popular 
interest tmtil in 1824 in Massachusetts its place was 
taken legally (save in seven towns) by a short-term, 
inferior, elementary school. These elementary schools, 

1 op. cU., pp. 94 ff. 



The Middle Period 53 

moreover, were no longer, in many instances, town 
schools, but schools that were held and supported by 
small sections or districts of the town acting independently 
of each other. We have seen, too, that the fate of the 
secondary schools of Massachusetts was, in its general 
features, not different from that of similar schools in the 
other New England states. Everywhere in America at 
this time free, public, secondary education had almost 
reached the vanishing point. Fortunately, however, at 
this critical stage new forces brought about a reaction in 
the sentiments of the people and the legislation of the 
governing bodies. In 1826 by a new law Massachusetts 
again required towns of five hundred families to maintain 
high schools, and, in towns of foiir thousand inhabitants, 
the high school was required to offer instruction in the 
classical languages. In 1827 a second law provided that 
all support for public schools should come from public 
taxation. In 1834 the state school fimd was established. 
In the meantime the expression "grammar school" 
had changed its significance and now came to designate 
the school that offered the work formerly given by the 
"reading school" and the "writing school"; that is, the 
grammar-school work followed the veriest elementary 
or primary instruction, and corresponded, in general, to 
the work of the last four grades of our present elementary 
schools. School work carried on beyond this stage — if not 
pursued in the Latin school or the academy — was fol- 
lowed in a new type of educational institution called the 
high school.^ Here again, as in so many other innovations 
in the field of education in America, Boston first set up 
the model. This was in 1821, when the city established 
what was called the English Classical School, or the 
Boys' English High School. 

1 How the term "high school "came to be used is given by Brown.o^. c»i.,p. 301. 



54 Public Secondary Education 

The program of studies was planned for three years' 
work and was to be entirely prescribed. The schooP 
was open only to boys who had attained the age of twelve 
years and who could successfully pass the admission 
examinations set in reading, writing, English grammar, 
and arithmetic. Only teachers who had "been regularly 
educated at some university" were given positions in 
the school. The aim of the school was not to fit boys for 
college, but merely to give a more extensive and better 
preparation for practical life to those whose circum- 
stances permitted or whose ambitions led them to spend 
in study another three years beyond the grammar school. 
The school at first was not largely attended. During 
the first four years the number entering during any one 
year did not exceed one hundred and thirty-five.^ 

In 1825, in response to a popular request that high- 
school training be furnished the girls as well as the boys, 
the School Committee established a Girls' English High 
School. The response was phenomenal and surprising. 
The first year two himdred and eighty-six girls made 
application for admission — a ntimber beyond the 
capacity of the school building to house and for whom 
the resources of the treasury were inadequate to provide. 
One hundred and thirty were admitted. The following 
year a much larger nimiber sought the privileges of the 
school, and the embarrassment of the authorities was 
ina'eased. Various plans were proposed and tried in 
order to solve the problem, but with Httle success. No 
relief appeared the third year, and in 1828 the Girls' High 
School was abolished. The branches of study offered 
in the Girls' High School were, however, now incorporated 
in the work of the various grammar schools of the city — 

1 The provisions for this school as made in the Report of the School Committee 
at the time are quoted in detail by Brown, op. cit., pp. 298 #. 

2 Josiah Quincy, Municipal History of Boston, pp. 22 ff. 



The Middle Period 55 

a policy which in effect really converted these schools 
into coeducational high schools or quasi high schools. 
This was the first — though unpremeditated — move- 
ment to enrich the work of the elementary schools and 
to make them something more than mere training places 
in the school arts. No more was done in Boston in the 
way of providing secondary education for girls until 1852, 
when a new movement set in and another and improved 
high school for girls was established. 

The program of study in the Girls' High School of Bos- 
ton, in 1826, was planned to cover three years' work. In 
general the curriculum was inflexible, though there were, 
besides the reqmred course, certain subjects "allowed" 
to be pursued by such girls as showed a proficiency that 
would merit the "reward." The complete program of 
study in the Girls' High School in 1826 was as follows: 
First YearI 

Required subjects: I, Reading; 2, Spelling; 3, Writing words 
and sentences from dictation; 4, English Grammar with exercises 
in the same; 5, Composition; 6, Modern and Ancient Geography; 
7, Intellectual and Written Arithmetic; 8, Rhetoric; 9, History of 
the United States. Allowed subjects: Logic or Botany. 

Second Year 
Required: I, 2, 5, 6, 7 and 8, continued; 10, Bookkeeping by 
single entry; 11, Elements of Geometry; 12, Natural Philosophy; 
13, General History; 14, History of English; 15, Paley's Natural 
Theology. Allowed: Logic, Botany, Demonstrative Geometry, 
Algebra, Latin or French. 

Third Year 

Required: I, 5, 12, 15, continued; 16, Astronomy; 17, Treatise 
on the Globes; 18, Chemistry; 19, History of Greece; 20, History 
of Rome; 21, Paley's Moral Philosbphy; 22, Paley's Evidences of 
Christianity. Allowed: Logic, Algebra, Principles of Perspective, 
the Projection of Maps, Botany, Latin or French. 

1 Am. Jour, of Ed., Vol. 13, p. 243. The program is quoted from the circulars 
issued by the School Committee at the time. The figures refer to the numbers of 
the courses. 



56 Public Secondary Education 

It is interesting to compare with this program of 
studies the one provided for the Boys' High School in 
182 1, and to note that considerable differentiation is 
made between the work outlined in the two schools. 
The following is the program for the boys* school:^ 

The Studies of the First Class 

Composition; Reading from the most approved authors; Exer- 
cises in Criticism: Comprising critical analyses of the language, 
grammar, and style of the best English authors, their errors and 
beauties; Declamation; Geography; Arithmetic continued. 

The Studies of the Second Class 

Composition [cont.]; Reading [cont.]; Exercises in Criticism 
[cont.]; Declamation [cont.]; Algebra [cont.]; Ancient and Modern 
History and Chronology; Logic; Geometry; Plane Trigonom- 
etry, and its application to mensuration of Heights and Distances; 
Navigation; Surveying; Mensuration of Superficies and Solids; 
Forensic Discussions. 

The Studies of the Third Class 
Composition [cont.]; Exercises in Criticism [cont.]; Declama- 
tion [cont.]; Mathematics [cent.]; Logic [cont.]; History, partic- 
ularly that of the United States [cont.]; Natural Philosophy, 
including Astronomy; Moral and Pohtical Philosophy. 

The program of studies for the Boston Latin School 
for this same period differs but little from what had been 
offered there from its foimdation. The course was now 
five years in length, and the work pursued was as 
follows:^ 

First Year 

Adam's Latin Grammar and the Liber Primus. 
Second Year 

Graecia Historiae Epitome; Viri Romae; Phaedri Fabulae 
(Burman's text, with English notes); Cornelius Nepos; Ovid's 

1 Taken from the Report of the School Committee made in 1 821, and quoted by 
Brown, op. cit., p. 300. 

2 Taken from Mr. B. A. Gould's account of the school when he was head 
master there, about 1824. Excerpts of this account are given by Brown, op. cit., 
pp. 27s #., from which I have quoted. 



The Middle Period 57 

Metamorphoses (by Willymotte); (Scansion, rules of prosody, 
"capping verses," etc.) ; Valpy's Chronology of Ancient and English 
History; Dana's Latin Tutor (for composition); Tooke's Pantheon. 

Third Year 
Greek Grammar; Caesar's Commentaries; Electa ex Ovidio 
et TibuUo; Delectus Sententiarum Graecarum; Col. Gr. Minora, 
Sallust, Virgil (written translations in English). 

Fourth and Fifth Years 
Latin Tutor, continued; followed by Valpy's Elegantiae Latinae; 
Bradley's Prosody. Cicero's Select Orations, De Officiis, De 
Senectute, and De Amicitia; Horace Exp.; Juvenal and Persius 
Expur.; Greek Primitives; Xenophon's Anabasis; Maittaire's 
Homer; Greek Testament; Wyttenbach's Greek Historiana; 
Geography (Worcester's) ; Arithmetic (Colburn, Lecroix) ; Geometry 
(Euclid); Trigonometry, and its uses; Algebra (Euler); Greek 
Exercises (Neilson's).i 

In pre-Revolutionary days the Latin-school course 
required ordinarily seven years for its completion. In 
1789 it was reduced to four years in Massachusetts, and 
the minimum age of admission was made ten years. In 
1823 the course was increased to five years and the age 
limit fixed at nine. In i860 the course was increased to 
six years, and the minimum age limit was again placed 
at ten years. These are the conditions to-day. 

The curricula of the academies during this same general 
period differed somewhat with different institutions. 
Most of these schools had two departments or cotu-ses of 
study — the Latin and the English. In the better class of 
academies Latin still continued to constitute the back- 
bone of the work, and the other subjects were made 
subordinate to it. If one recalls that up to the year 
1800 no college in America required for admission any 

1 Dr. Brown states that the following books were in use in addition to those given 
in the curriculum: Schrevilin's Greek Lexicon, Hedericus, Scapula, Morell's 
Thesaurus, Walker's Classical Key, Lempriere's Classical Dictionary, Adam's 
Roman Antiquities, and Entick's and Ainsworth's Latin Dictionary. Brown, 
op. cit., p. 278, note. 



58 Public Secondary Education 

subjects save Latin, Greek, and arithmetic,* and that 
from 1800 to i860 only five^ other subjects were added to 
the list of college requirements, one can get a fairly- 
accurate notion of what work was included in the college 
preparatory or Latin course of the academies. 

"But the notable thing about the academies as distin- 
guished from the grammar (Latin) schools, was that they 
went, on adding subjects to this program at their own 
sweet will, wholly regardless of what the colleges were 
doing. Sometimes they brought subjects down from 
the college course; sometimes they took subjects which 
the most of the colleges did not touch. "^ The English 
course in these schools, therefore, ranged from very elemen- 
tary branches up to and beyond the limits of higher 
education. In some, even at an early date, modern 
foreign language was studied — a siibject unheard of in 
most quarters at the time. 

The program of study in the Phillips academies was 
doubtless superior in scope and application to that of the 
majority of the secondary schools of this period. Still 
it furnishes a good illustration of the ideals that were set 
by the more worthy academies, and for purposes of com- 
parison may be taken as a type. The full program of 
studies offered at PhilHps Exeter in 18 18 was as follows:^ 

CLASSICAL DEPARTMENT 

For the First Year 

Adam's Latin Grammar; Liber Primus, or a similar work; 

Viri Romani, or Caesar's Commentaries; Latin Prosody; Exercises 

in Reading and making Latin; Ancient and Modern Geography; 

Virgil and Arithmetic. 

1 Brown, op. cit., p. 231. . . 

2 These subjects, with the dates of their first appearance in the list of require- 
ments for any college, are geography, 1807; English grammar, 1819; algebra, 
1820; geometry, 1844; ancient history, 1847. See Brown, op. cit., pp. 231-2. 

3 Brown, op. cit., p. 232. 

4 Bell, Phillips Exeter Academy, pp. 93-94. The courses are quoted by Brown, 
0^' cit., pp. 237-8. 



The Middle Period 59 

For the Second Year 
Virgil; Arithmetic and exercises in Reading and making Latin, 
continued; Valpy's Greek Grammar; Roman History; Cicero's 
Select Orations; Delectus; Dalzel's Collectanea Graeca Minora; 
Greek Testament; English Grammar and Declamation. 

For the Third Year 
The same Latin and Greek authors in revision; English Grammar 
and Declamation continued; Sallust; Algebra; Exercises in English 
and Latin translations, and Composition. 

For the Advanced Class 
Collectanea Graeca Majora; Q. Horatius Flaccus; Titus Livius; 
Parts of Terence's Comedies; Excerpta Latina, or such Latin and 
Greek authors as may best comport with the student's future 
distinction; Algebra; Geometry; Elements of Ancient History; 
Adam's Roman Antiquities, etc. 

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT 

For admission into this department the candidate must be at 
least twelve years of age.i^ and must have been well instructed in 
Reading and Spelling; familiarity with Arithmetic through simple 
proportion with the exception of Fractions, with Murray's English 
Grammar through Syntax, and must be able to parse simple English 
sentences. 

The following is the course of instruction and study in the English 
Department, which, with special exceptions, will comprise three 
years. 

For the First Year 

English Grammar including exercises in Reading, in Parsing, and 
in Analyzing, in the correction of bad English; Punctuation and 
Prosody; Arithmetic; Geography, and Algebra through simple 
Equations. 

For the Second Year 

English Grammar continued; Geometry; Plane Trigonometry 
and its applications to heights and distances; mensuration of 
Sup, and Sol.; Elements of Ancient History; Logic; Rhetoric; 
English Composition; Declamation and exercises of the Forensic 
kind. 

1 It will be recalled that in many academies youths were admitted at seven 
years of age, and that the most usual age on entrance averaged about nine years. 
Phillips Exeter therefore had higher entrance requirements than most academies. 



6o Public Secondary Education 

For the Third Year 

Surveying; Navigation; Elements of Chemistry and Natural 

Philosophy, with experiments; Elements of Modern History, 

particularly of the United States; Moral and Political Philosophy, 

with English Composition, Forensics, and Declamation continued. 

In no school of secondary rank — whether grammar 
school or academy — was any illustrative apparatus 
used before 1798. The first pieces consisted of globes, 
prospect glasses, and microscopes. There were no 
laboratories before 1824, nor any experiments or demon- 
strations before the class before this date, save perchance 
of very simple phenomena and with very simple contriv- 
ances. Even in the English high schools and the English 
departments of the academies little effort was made to 
vitalize the work and make it connect intimately with 
life and life processes. School work was still pretty 
largely a task that had to be performed imder stern, 
rigid, and close voluntary concentration. Memory still 
bore the burden of training, and slight effort was made to 
attract through the inherent interest of thesubject-matter, 
interestingly presented. 

The revival of public secondary education that started 
in Boston' in 182 1 soon spread to other cities beyond the 
confines of that Commonwealth. In 1838 Philadelphia 
established her Central High School with three courses of 
study, — the English Course of two years, the Modem 
Language Course of four years, and the Classical Course 
of four years.^ In 1839 Baltimore, Maryland, and 
Charleston, South Carolina, each erected city high 
schools. Providence, Rhode Island, entered the field in 
1843, a^nd Hartford, Connecticut, in 1847. In 1848 New 
York City established what she called a Free Academy. 

1 Dexter, op. cil., p. 171, states that before 1840 six other towns besides Boston 
had established high schools. These were Portland, Me., 1821; Worcester, Mass., 
1824; New Bedford, Mass., 1827; Cambridge, Mass., 1838; Taunton, Mass., 1838; 
Philadelphia, Pa., 1839. 



The Middle Period 6i 

To all intents and purposes this was a public high school, 
but the institution soon developed into a school of higher 
rank and in 1866 took the name of "The College of the 
City of New York." 

From now on the public high-school movement went 
steadily forward.^ Just how many free public high 
schools there were before the Civil War is a question on 
which there is considerable difference of opinion. As has 
been pointed out, many academies were regarded both by 
their founders and by their constituencies as public 
secondary schools, and certain it is many of them did in 
fact, if not in name, fill this fimction. Consequently, in 
compiling the figures, discrepancies are bound to arise. 
One authority says that in 1851 eighty cities in America 
possessed public high schools!^ In 1855 it is asserted 
Massachusetts alone had sixty-four such schools.^ In 
1856 Ohio had ninety-seven.* Other states possessed 
proportionate nimibers. Yet, on the other hand, Dr. 
Harris has held that in the whole United States in i860 
there were only forty free public schools worthy the 
name ' ' high school . " ^ Evidently the nimiber is dependent 
upon the critical judgment of the individual who sifts the 
evidence and the data. Certain it is, however, that down 
to 1850 or i860 the academies largely controlled secondary 
education in America, and that by far the greatest 
numbers of pupils pursuing secondary education were 
enrolled in them. 

The period from 1750 to 1850 may thus well be con- 
sidered a transition period in the history of secondary 
education in the United States. So long as the people 

1 Before 1850 we find the following schools, among others: New Orleans, 1843; 
Cleveland, 1846; Cincinnati, 1847; Toledo, 1849. 

2 Barney, Report on the American System, p. 5. 

3 Brown, o^. cj7., p. 313. 

4 Taylor, Ohio School System, p. 409. 
SProc. N.E.A., 1901, pp. 174-180. 



62 Public Secondary Education 

in New England were nearly homogeneous in nationality, 
in religious beliefs, in social ideals and industrial ambitions, 
the old Latin school served their needs and served them 
moderately well. With the changed physical and social 
environment and conditions that appeared incipiently 
before the year 1700 there came also a change in the 
spiritual and intellectual ideals and in the educational 
motives. The old school plan began to break down. 
The influx of new immigrants who had been brought up 
under a different code of religion and law, who had 
passed through less strenuous struggles for group preserva- 
tion, brought into influence a faction that had little 
interest in the traditions and institutions of the earlier 
settlers. Nor did the second and third generations of 
children of the rigid old Puritans appreciate, as did their 
fathers, the civil and ecclesiastical necessities of a liberal 
education. A secular spirit and ambition seized upon the 
land, and the hopes of immediate material and individual 
aggrandizement took the place of the high social ideals 
that dominated in the earlier days. 

But perhaps more powerful than any other agency in 
bringing about these changed ideals and efforts were the 
colonial wars which culminated finally in the Revolution- 
ary War and the War of 181 2. Following in the train of 
each of these came violent religious dissensions and a 
diminution of faith in the orthodox creed. What injured 
the mother was bound also to affect the child. The old 
Latin school was in fact a church school — yes, a school 
of the Congregational denomination. Now new religious 
sects arose; the old social homogeneity dissolved; the 
Latin school, neglected during the strife of opinions, was 
abandoned nearly to its death. 

Out of this changed and heterodox condition — a condi- 
tion different materially, socially, politically, religiously, 



The Middle Period 63 

and ideally, — arose the academies. Here was one institu- 
tion in which men could cooperate with mutual good will, 
and on a nearly equal footing. Here, indeed, religion 
formed a basic principle, but not a creedal one. Here 
differences of all kinds could be merged and could yield 
to a common ideal. For approximately one hundred 
years, therefore, the academies served as the strongest 
tie to bind all the people together in harmony. Here 
was again taught the art of living together — here was 
preserved the germ of social solidarity or unity. When, 
following the French Revolution, democratic and heretical 
theories were running wild, the academies checked the 
dissolving tendencies and preserved the continuity of 
the religious, the political, and the educational traditions. 
By 1840 the height of the decentralizing tendencies 
was reached. Then came the general reaction, which in 
places had already begun, and out of the new conditions 
was evolved the public high school. Its later history is 
reserved for other chapters. 



CHAPTER III 

The Early Northwest^ 

NOT fewer than seven sovereign powers have claimed 
control over all or parts of the old Northwest 
Territory — that territory lying north of the Ohio River 
and east of the Mississippi now included within the 
boundaries of the United States. Nor does this boast of 
sovereignty take into account the fact that an equally 
valid case might be presented on behalf of numerous 
Indian tribes whose authority in this region was for 
years unshaken though not unquestioned. The state- 
ment has reference only to nations and divisions of the 
Caucasian race. 

In the earlier days of the seventeenth century, when the 
courts of the Bourbons exerted the dominant influence in 
world affairs — when the absolutism of Louis XIII and 
Louis XIV not only controlled France but set the example 
for like despotism in numerous other quarters; when the 
keenness of French ministers and the aggressiveness and 
fearlessness of Jesuit priests were affecting policies of 
State and Church in all parts of the world — it was very 
natural that at least certain portions of the New World 
should be brought within the scope of French influences. 
Then it was that the St. Lawrence River region and the 
Great Lakes district of America were first penetrated by 
adventurous soldiers and pious missionaries, and these 
lands and waters, forests and plains, were first brought 

1 For much of the material herein employed I am indebted to the following 
treatises: Howe, Ohio; Taylor, Manual of Ohio School System; Hinsdale, Schools 
in the Western Reserve; Coggeshill, System of Common Schools in Ohio; Woodbum, 
Higher Education in Indiana; Willard, History of Education in Illinois; and others. 

64 



The Early Northwest 65 

under the flag of France. For a hundred years these 
hardy subjects and unofficial representatives of the 
Louises were the only white men to enter this distant and 
almost unknown territory. The persons of historical 
renown, however, who traversed these wilds of an earlier 
day are numerous. Cartier, Champlain, Charlevoix, 
Frontenac, La Salle, Marquette, Hennepin, Joliet, Cadil- 
lac, and Tonti are well-known characters in the history of 
this region. French settlements or trading posts were 
early to be found at points on or near the sites of what are 
now Sault Ste. Marie, Mackinaw* Green Bay, Chicago, 
St. Joseph, Detroit, Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and other 
towns. Wherever the topography offered natural advan- 
tages for defense or for trade, there French settlers were 
to be found at a comparatively early day. Before the 
Pilgrim Fathers had stepped out on Plymouth Rock the 
French were making explorations in v^/^hat is now Canada 
and Maine, and long before the close of the seventeenth 
century they had sailed up the St. Lawrence, had crossed 
to the upper lake region, had floated down the tributaries 
of the Mississippi and the great river itself, and had taken 
nominal possession of these regions in the name of the 
French nation. 

All this was happening nearly a full hundred years before 
the English, situated on the Atlantic coast, had advanced 
to the summit of the Alleghenies. Nor did the French 
attempt to move eastward from the Mississippi to these 
mountains tmtil well into the eighteenth century. The 
two nations were therefore separated by a wide expanse 
of wild, rugged, and untouched land made more or less 
unapproachable from either side by difficult motmtain 
ranges, dark and tangled forests, and lurking enemies 
— both Indians and wild beasts. 

Nevertheless an inevitable conflict was approaching. 
6 



66 Public Secondary Education 

Since the days of the Norman Conquest in 1066 a natural 
and national jealousy had existed between England and 
France. The territorial, personal, commercial, political, 
and religious rivalries in Europe had for centuries brought 
the two powers into an intermittent struggle for suprem- 
acy. The discovery of the western world introduced one 
more cause for strife. The prize now was no longer petty 
shires, counties, and kingdoms, but a whole continent. 
For a hundred years neither party seems to have appre- 
ciated its value, and consequently both had neglected 
to take advantage of the opportunity offered. Nearly 
simultaneously, however, each nation awoke to the 
conscious recognition of the importance of the stake 
and straightway set out to possess itself of it. Another 
hundred years' war ensued, broken only by periods of 
insincere truces and of professed inactivities. The 
climax came, however, in 1763, when by the Treaty of 
Paris France was utterly and permanently eliminated as 
a power from the western hemisphere. From this date 
until 1783 England held undisputed the whole eastern 
half of the continent north of Florida. She was thus the 
second ruler of the Northwest Territory. 

Another change came with the close of the Revolution- 
ary War. When at that time England surrendered to the 
thirteen states all her possessions south of Canada, a new 
difficulty arose. Since 1 763 seven of the thirteen states had 
claimed control over portions of the uninhabited districts 
to the westward. The claimant states were those whose 
boimdary lines had been made more or less indefinite by 
their charters, or whose titles were based on treaties 
with the Indian tribes. Naturally in many instances 
these claims conflicted and overlapped each other. In 
particular, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and 
Virginia each presented documentary evidence to show 



The Early Northwest 67 

that all, or part, of the old Northwest belonged to her. 
Even before the close of the Revolutionary War disputes 
respecting this land question and its adjustment had 
caused no small amount of jealousy and friction. How- 
ever the more wise and sane councils prevailed, and each 
claimant agreed to surrender her rights and jurisdiction 
to the control of the general government. Thus, begin- 
ning with 1780 and continuing until 1802,^ one state after 
another yielded her traditional claims with certain minor 
reservations and conditions. This was the beginning of 
the national domain, and from now on, until the different 
sections were organized and admitted into the Union as 
equal states, the Northwest was completely under the 
control of the central authority. 

Thus the old Northwest was successively subject, or 
jointly subject, to control by the following powers: the 
Indian tribes, particularly the Iroquois Nation; the 
French; the British; the sovereign states of Virginia, 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York; the Federal 
government, and, finally, the Federal states of Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, together 
with Minnesota in respect to a small tract. 

In the preceding chapter we have seen that as early as 
1787 an English settlement had been made in the North- 
west Territory at Marietta, Ohio. Other immigrants 
soon followed, and despite the hardships of frontier life, 
despite the ever-present dangers of attacks from Indians 
and wild animals, despite the threatening aspect of 
England which, in disregard of the terms of the treaty of 
1783, refused to give possession of the military posts in 
this region — despite all these adverse conditions, from 
now on hordes of immigrants streamed into this distant, 

1 Chase, History of Ohio, p. 22; also Johnston, History of the United States, 
P- 174- 



68 Public Secondary Education 

but fertile, region. There were, moreover, other factors 
conspiring to foster this westward movement, and these 
in particular have exerted a mighty influence on the 
educational history of the territory. 

The Revolutionary War left the central government 
heavily in debt and with no efficient means of collecting, 
through taxation, fimds with which to meet these obliga- 
tions. Owing, however, to the cessions of lands by the 
various states, the central government had at its disposal 
what then seemed almost inexhaustible quantities of 
unsurveyed, uninhabited, and tmassigned farming tracts. 
Here, it was seen, was a source of wealth; here was a 
means for replenishing the treasury and for meeting the 
current and past expenses of the government. All that 
was wanting were the purchasers, and it was thought 
these could be secured. It was decided to throw open 
these lands to settlers at prices so low and on conditions 
so favorable that any thrifty citizen would be attracted 
by the offer. The plan succeeded to an extent far beyond 
the expectations of the veriest seer of the age, nor can we 
say that the policy thus begun has yet come to an end. 

The first settlers to the Northwest were not foreigners 
from Eiiropean states, but were the vigorous and hardy 
citizens from the Atlantic coast — more particularly from 
New England and New York. Later, it is true, the South 
and Southeast furnished large numbers of immigrants to 
Indiana and Illinois, but this was not the case with the 
rest of the territory. The settlers from New England, 
however brave and ready to face the material and physical 
difficulties that lay before them in the Northwest, did 
nevertheless hesitate to be cut off from spiritual and intel- 
lectual sustenance. Their forefathers were the Puritans 
who had migrated to America to secure for themselves the 
blessings of toleration in religion and of freedom in 



The Early Northwest 69 

government. They had also come to this country to 
enjoy liberty of thought and to develop, tinhampered, 
civil, religious, and educational ideals. For these prin- 
ciples they had been willing to fight, to bleed, and, if 
necessary, to die. Their posterity, though perhaps of a 
less serious temperament than their fathers, and with 
religious and literary aspirations perhaps not always so 
lofty and fixed, were nevertheless at heart imbued with 
the same traditions, ambitions, and principles. The 
backwoods of the Ohio Valley might furnish equal 
opportimities for freedom of thought, religion, and 
government, but they could not furnish opportunity for 
the same intellectual development as could the East. 
The American people as a whole have always stood in 
more fear of ignorance and illiteracy than they have of 
Satan, despotism, poverty, and physical dangers. Indeed, 
they have always gone on the asstmiption that the 
banishment of the two former foes is equivalent to the 
overthrow of the four latter. History seems, too, to be 
justifying their faith. 

In order, therefore, to make the western lands doubly 
attractive and to encourage the migration thither of the 
most desirable classes of citizens, the central government, 
in the two famous ordinances mentioned in the last 
chapter,^ provided not only that the lands should be offered 
at a low price, not only that the settlers should forever 
be guaranteed the operation of sound principles of govern- 
ment and of civil liberty, but above and beyond these 
that they and their posterity should forever enjoy the 
equal spiritual and intellectual advantages possessed by 
the rest of the nation. To this end the government, 
before disposing of these lands, made provision for the 
careful survey of the whole region and dedicated the 

1 Chapter II, p. 47. 



70 Public Secondary Education 

sixteenth section of each and every township to the 
support and maintenance of schools. Likewise, too, it 
set aside a similar section in each township — sometimes 
the ninth, sometimes the eighteenth, and sometimes the 
twenty-ninth — to the support and maintenance of reli- 
gion and the chiirch. The growing diversity of sects, the 
interdenominational jealousies, and the increased secular 
spirit soon revealed the fact that, however closely a 
community might be welded into a unity for harmonious 
and concerted action respecting education, the same was 
not true, and at that particular time at least could not be 
true, respecting religion. Consequently the sections of 
public land dedicated to the cause of religion were a 
source of local jealousy and contention rather than of 
conciliation and solidification. The clauses in the land 
ordinances granting these sections to the church may 
have aided in furthering migration, but the lands were 
never administered as advantageously as were the lands 
dedicated to the schools. The result was that there 
never was formed, and never could have been formed, a 
permanent church fund, the interest from which was to 
be inviolably devoted to the support of religion as such. 
In time Congress annulled its former ordinances respecting 
this phase of its grants, nor did it ever reincorporate the 
principle in later provisions concerning the public lands. 
As each portion of the Northwest was organized into a 
territory and later into a state. Congress, in addition to 
the other school grants, dedicated one entire township in 
each territory for the support of a seminary of learning or 
a university. In some instances two whole townships 
instead of one were allotted. These gifts became the 
nuclei out of which arose the state universities and the 
system of free higher education now found in many parts 
of the Union. 



The Early Northwest 71 

As already indicated, all these government grants of 
land were made with the primary and immediate purpose 
of attracting settlers to the West, in order that fundr 
might be raised with which to meet the obligations of the 
government. Another motive that the government had 
was to fortify the Northwest against English ambition 
by attracting to this region sufficient people to insure 
successful resistance to any perfidious attempt that 
might.be made to reconquer it. As time went on, and 
England made no movement toward withdrawing from 
the military posts here, suspicion became more and more 
pronounced that she never intended to abide by the 
terms of the treaty of 1783, and that she waited only for 
a favorable opportunity to regain full and absolute 
possession of the whole district. Indeed, between 1783 
and 181 5 the British flag floated over this territory 
more than half the time, and this occurred despite the 
fact that the actual period of avowed war during that 
time was only three years. ^ Later events in history 
seem to have corroborated the suspicions of Congress 
and the public. The War of 181 2 was to a large degree 
a struggle for this territory, nor was there ever any 
true political freedom here imtil the Treaty of Ghent in 
1815. 

The Ordinance of 1787 provided that not fewer than 
three or more than five states^ should be formed from 
the Northwest Territory. Acting on this principle, Con- 
gress began in 1800 to divide the district. In that 
year Ohio was organized as a separate territory and the 
remainder of the land was termed Indiana. In 1805 
Michigan Territory was separated from this on the 
north, and in 1809 Illinois was set off from it on the west. 

iFor this thought and many others in this chapter, I am indebted to Hins- 
dale's The Old Northwest. 
2 Chase, op. cit., p. 9, 



72 Public Secondary Education 

Some years later, in 1836, Wisconsin was made into the 
fifth territory. Here the division ended. ^ 

We have already seen that the first educational land 
grants made by Congress were made directly to the inhabi- 
tants of the several townships, to be administered by them 
as they collectively might deem wise, conditioned only by 
the requirement that they be devoted to the support of 
schools of that particular township. Unfortimately, the 
early settlers of Ohio had no precedents or experience to 
guide them in the exercise of this power, and as a con- 
sequence there was mismanagement, waste, and loss on 
every side. Owing partially to this fact and partially to 
the principle embodied in the letter of the law itself, there 
was developed in Ohio no feeling of state pride in education 
and no interest in a state-wide school system. Indeed, 
in many townships the common-school funds^ were entirely 
dissipated, and the districts or townships were left with 
no source of school revenue save that of direct local 
taxation. This method, hated and opposed by the many 
enlightened communities, is especially obnoxious to 
pioneer and struggling settlers. Naturally, then, one 
need not expect to find the early immigrants in the 
Northwest voluntarily rising to heights of deferred state- 
craft such as philosophers might teach. Nor indeed will 
one so find them. Education in Ohio, therefore, did not 
keep pace with the high ideals set by the leaders. Schools 
were left pretty largely to the organization, adminis- 
tration, and control of various religious denominations, 
or of private or local associations, even well down into 
the nineteenth century. 

1 As is well known, a small portion of the old Northwest Territory was added 
to the present state of Minnesota. However, only five complete states were 
organized from the Northwest Territory, so the statement above is substantially 
correct. 

2 It is probable the expression, "common schools," arose from some such wording 
as this. These funds were dedicated to schools that were to serve all in the district 
in common, equally. 



The Early Northwest 73 

By means of the government grant for a central academy 
or college of higher learning, Ohio did establish a State 
University at Athens, and this enjoyed a fair degree of 
prosperity and honor even during its earlier history. The 
story of most of the other early public schools of the state 
is not gratifying. 

In 1803 Ohio was admitted into the Union as a state. 
The constitution which at this time was accepted as the 
fundamental state law contained the declaration that 
"schools and the means of instruction should be forever 
encouraged by the legislative power, not inconsistent 
with the rights of conscience."^ As a matter of fact, 
even this vague and general provision went almost 
unheeded for nearly twenty years. Until 182 1 there 
were, "save in the most enterprising towns," no schools 
whatever in the state. ^ In 1806 a law had been passed 
providing for the organization of certain school districts 
and for the care of the school funds arising from the 
disposal of the sixteenth section and other sources, but 
this affected few. In 182 1 a similar law was enacted for 
the whole state. It authorized the election of local 
school officers, who were empowered to organize the 
district, assess taxes, erect school buildings, and employ 
teachers. It was, however, wholly permissive in its 
provisions and hence was of little value. Experience 
has shown over and over again that legislation of this 
character sits but lightly upon the minds and con- 
sciences of people whose immediate dominant interests 
are seemingly best served by neglecting and ignoring 
its recommendations. 

However, some progress was being made. The next 
year, in 1822, a Commission of Seven was appointed to 

1 Coggeshill, "System of Common Schools in Ohio," in American Journal of 
Education, Vol. 6, p. 82. 

2 Ibid. 



74 Public Secondary Education 

investigate and to report a plan for a complete state school 
system. This Commission reported in 1824, and the 
next year a bill was presented and passed which created 
such a system. This law was to be mandatory over the 
whole state and provided for a tax for school purposes 
of one half mill on all assessable property. But the idea 
was not well received, and though the law was bolstered 
by other supplementary acts, the state-wide public-school 
system did not become efficient until 1836.^ 

The early school history of Indiana is not much different 
from that we have just sketched. Here the French had 
obtained a foothold in the seventeenth century and a 
few weak schools had been established in their settlements. 
When the territory was organized in 1800 Congress granted 
the prospective state two townships of land for a university 
and the customary sixteenth section for common schools. 
In 1806 the territorial legislature created the Vincennes 
Universit3^ which was to be supported out of the funds 
arising from the disposal of the university lands. This 
school was opened in 18 10, but had a poor start and a 
precarious existence. The funds were neglected or 
wrongly administered, and after a few years of doubtful 
promise the institution went into a decline from which it 
never recovered. Nominally it was a public school, but 
it received no government aid save the land grant, and 
was finally abandoned by the state in 1824.^ Later, 
it is true, it was resurrected, and continued to play a part in 
the educational history of the state, but its later changes 
have no essential interest for owe present study. 

Theoretically and ideally Indiana started her career 
as a state with provisions for a system of education that 
had few equals and no superiors in the world. Her 

1 Coggeshill, op. cit., p. 8s. 
3 Woodburn, op. oil., p. 35. 



The Early Northwest 75 

constitution, adopted in 18 16 when the territory was 
admitted into the Union, contained the following 
significant clauses: 

" Knowledge and learning generally diffused throughout 
a community being essential to the preservation of a 
free government, and spreading the opportunities and 
advantages of education through the various parts of the 
country being highly conducive to this end, it shall be 
the duty of the general assembly to provide by law for the 
improvement of such lands as are, or hereafter may be, 
granted by the United States to this state for the use of 
schools."^ Another clause then provides that these lands 
should not be sold prior to 1820 — the state having taken 
a lesson apparently from Ohio and from its own territorial 
experiences. 

Again we read: "The general assembly shall from 
time to time pass such laws as shall be calculated to 
encourage intellectual, scientific, and agricultural 
improvements." 

It is true these are rather indefinite and high-sounding 
generalities and might have signified little real intent or 
purpose, but they are supplemented by another, a most 
ambitious and praiseworthy section. It reads: "It shall 
be the duty of the general assembly as soon as circum- 
stances will permit to provide by law for a general system 
of education ascending in regular gradation from township 
schools to a State University wherein tuition shall be 
gratis and equally open to all."^ 

One searches in vain for a loftier ideal of education 
anywhere expressed in the constitution or laws of any 
other state or country. Here in the backwoods, nearly 
one himdred years ago, was announced not only an 

1 Quoted by Woodburn, ibid., pp. 39-40. 

2 Ibid., p. 40, 



76 Public Secondary Education 

aspiration but an avowed state policy that few states 
in America and few, if any, states or countries outside 
America have reached in practice to this day. Here 
was authorized a system of education that had no breaks 
or gaps throughout its extent and hence called for no 
mechanical schemes of articulation or correlation. It was 
to be an organic whole, and in the terms of the constitution 
it anticipated by fifty years Huxley's vision of an educa- 
tional ladder which reaches from the gutter to the univer- 
sity. It is true, indeed, that educational history is 
replete with references to isolated educational leaders and 
reformers who have pitched educational theory and 
practice to as high a key, but history does not reveal, I 
think, the like of a whole convention of pioneers giving 
expression to a piece of wisdom so lofty. Alas that it 
should have remained so long only a recommendation, or 
at most only an unenforced dictinn or decree! 

This constitutional plan was doubtless impossible of 
realization anywhere in the Northwest at the time. 
Though the electors of Indiana approved the constitution 
and adopted it as the binding fundamental law of their 
commonwealth, still the advanced views embodied in the 
sections on education do not represent the true feeling 
and aspirations of the people as a whole. Most of the 
settlers of this region, says Woodburn, were poor, ignorant, 
indifferent, self-satisfied, lazy, and slovenly."- 

They adopted the constitution as a matter of course; 
the ideals therein set forth were far beyond their compre- 
hension or desires. In consequence Indiana's public 
schools, instead of approaching an advanced standard, 
were far behind the actual conditions found in some other 
parts of the Union. Indeed, it was not until after the 
constitution was revised in 1851 that Indiana had any 

1 Woodburn, op. cit., p. 36. 



The Early Northwest 77 

actual common-school system at all, and in the meantime 
general education was at such low ebb that the schools 
furnished a theme for ridicule even by her own writers.^ 
Since that time the state has made a most remarkable 
advance in every field of education, but this recent history 
does not rightly belong to our present discussion. 

Nevertheless the legislature did not wholly neglect its 
duty. The same year Indiana was admitted to the 
Union a law was enacted providing that any township 
might, on the petition of twenty householders, elect three 
trustees who in tiu-n might take steps to supply school 
instruction. Few townships took advantage of the 
permission. In 1821 a serious attempt was made to 
establish a state-wide school system. A Commission was 
appointed to draft a plan and, acting on its recommenda- 
tions, the legislature again enacted a law providing for 
permissive township schools. Still, few were opened, and 
all that were established were supported by tuition fees, 
called "rates." In 1833 coimty school commissioners 
were authorized, and in 1837 other changes were made 
in the school law, but, as we have stated, with little 
result. 

As a general thing, life in the Northwest during these 
early days was too strenuously spent in making a bare 
living to have much spirit or energy for what was termed 
"schooling." The boys could better devote their time to 
assisting in the manual work which everywhere was 
necessary. The few pieces of money that came, with 
hardship, into the pioneer's hands could better be devoted 
to something more immediately satisfying than the 
securing of an education for his children. Book learning 
was a luxury which, however desirable in itself, must be 
foregone until more favorable days should arrive. 

1 One recalls in this connection Edward Eggleston's The Hoosier Schoolmaster. 



78 Public Secondary Education 

Indeed, there was excuse and justification for this 
attitude on the part of many. Communities were poor. 
Often, too, owing to an insufficiency of wholesome, 
nourishing food and to an excess of prolonged, debilitating 
work, families were in a state of chronic ill health. Un- 
sanitary and unhygienic conditions about the house were 
only too common. Fevers, agues, and other affections 
were frequent. Hard work and small returns were 
the common rule. Life was overburdened with natural 
cares without adding artificial cares. In the light of the 
actual conditions then existing the present generation is 
more justified in applauding what men did accompHsh 
than in deploring and censuring. When the more 
favorable time came the men and the women of the 
Northwest arose in their strength and made good their 
promises. 

All that has so far been mentioned respecting legislative 
provisions for public education has had reference almost 
solely to the primary or common-school system. Still, 
in the light of later history, a discussion of this phase of 
education is both justifiable and essential to the treatment 
of secondary education, since throughout the whole 
Northwest the high school came to be regarded, popu- 
larly and legally, as an organic part of the common -school 
system, and was made to conform to the general school 
law the same as was the veriest elementary school. 
We shall later have occasion to consider this matter 
more fully. 

For a time, however, both in Indiana and in other por- 
tions of the Northwest, secondary education was pro- 
vided in other ways. Obviously, if the nigh school is 
the product or an evolution of the elementary school, it 
was necessary first to establish the schools of this ele- 
mentary character. Consequently the high school, as 



The Early Northwest 79 

such, does not appear in the Northwest until about the 
middle of the nineteenth century — the time when the 
common-school system had become thoroughly and 
legally established. In 18 18 Indiana empowered her gov- 
ernor to appoint a seminary trustee in each county in 
the state, and authorized this officer to supervise the 
accumulation of a seminary fund and to loan this fund 
to the best and most lucrative advantage.^ All moneys 
arising from the net balance of fines and forfeitures were 
dedicated to this cause. Apparently, however, no 
seminary was opened at this time. 

In 182 1 a private seminary that attracted considerable 
local attention was opened in Fayette County. Influ- 
enced by the success of this seminary, Union County 
shortly after this date applied to the legislature for a 
special charter allowing her to establish a county seminary. 
The request was granted, and the school was opened 
at Liberty in 1825.^ Other counties soon followed the 
example, and in 1831 the legislature, by general law, 
authorized a seminary of this kind in every county. 

Simultaneously there arose on all sides similar institu- 
tions called academies or institutes, that differed from 
seminaries chiefly in their legal foundations. These 
secured their charters through special legislative acts 
and not, like the seminaries, through the operation of the 
general laws. The academies or institutes, too, were 
generally fathered by towns, cities, or religious denomi- 
nations rather than by the county. The first of these 
acaderfties was established at Corydon in 18 16. A second 
was founded at Aurora in 1823.^ 

In respect to seminaries and academies alike the expense 
for buildings, fuel, and furnishings was met by the County 

1 Woodburn, op. cit., p. 45. 

2 Ibid., p. 46. 

3 Ibid., p. 46. 



8o Public Secondary Education 

Seminary Fund, while teachers' salaries were paid by 
means of rate bills. Many of these institutions of both 
types were ephemeral and weak, and shared the fate of 
their sister institutions of like grade throughout the 
Union. Others again were stable, strong, and effective, 
and filled a recognized social need. They served here, as 
elsewhere, to raise the standard of education; to fur- 
nish a training for teachers; to popularize the idea of 
universal education; and to meet a current demand at a 
time when the local civil authorities could not, or would 
not, make adequate provision for schools. 

Up to 1850 twenty-four county seminaries had been 
established in Indiana and thirty-seven "seminaries in 
general," — that is, academies or institutes. About this 
time the public imion school and the public high school 
made their appearance in the state, and the seminaries 
and academies rapidly declined. Some were transformed 
and reorganized into colleges, others into technical 
schools, and others ceased to exist. ^ 

Despite the relatively large number of seminaries and 
academies, and notwithstanding the legal provisions for 
a system of elementary schools, education in Indiana 
during the first half of the nineteenth century remained, 
as we have hinted, deplorable indeed. In 1840 "only 
about one child in eight between five and fifteen is able 
to read."^ There were in the state in this year, 273,784 
children of the legal school age, and of these only 48,180 
were in schools of any kind. As intimated above, the 
constitution of 1851 sought to correct the abuses and to 
reform the educational conditions. Among other clauses 
provision was made for conserving the permanent school 
fund, and to-day, as a result of wise administration, this 

1 Woodburn, op. cit., p. 47- 

2 Ibid., p. 49. 



The Early Northwest 8i 

amounts to considerably more than ten million dollars. 
In addition the laws of the state permit local authorities 
to levy a relatively large direct annual tax for school 
purposes, so that as a result of these revenues Indiana 
has at present a system of schools that approaches the 
ideal set for herself in the constitution of 1816 — a system 
"ascending in regular gradation from the township school 
to a State University." 

The early history of education in Illinois is similar to 
that of Indiana and need not detain us long at this point. 
If social conditions were not conducive to systematic 
education in the latter state, they surely were not in the 
former. Here, too, in an early day the French had held 
sway and probably had had a meager school at Kaskaskia 
and perhaps at other posts. When the territory was 
thrown open to English settlers late in the eighteenth 
century the first immigrants were, as in Indiana, largely 
pioneers from the South Atlantic States who had found 
their way to these fertile prairies through the younger 
states of Kentucky and Tennessee. Many of the new- 
comers from these districts were of less stem stock than 
were the settlers from New England and the Middle 
States — less stern in moral fiber, in religious ideals, and 
in personal worth. Many of the early settlers of southern 
Indiana and southern Illinois were descendants of the 
"indentured servants" and the paroled prisoners who, in 
an earlier day, had constituted so large a class in certain 
sections of the South. Thrown on their own resources, 
and being of a shiftless and improvident nature both 
by heredity and social neglect, many of these poorer 
families had, by stress of economic conditions, been 
forced back from the more fertile and tillable lands near 
the coast and had taken up their abodes in the more 
distant frontiers of the region. Here land was cheaper 

7 



82 Public Secondary Education 

and likewise, for the most part, poorer. The combination 
of an improvident and shiftless family placed on a sterile 
or rugged farm does not yield a valuable product either 
in men or in produce. Poverty was a chronic complaint 
with most of these backwoodsmen, and the state of 
material want bred a spirit of restlessness and dissatis- 
faction. Out from among these classes came many of 
the early settlers who migrated to the southern portions 
of Indiana and Illinois. ^ The inhabitants of the northern 
portions were of a different stock and temperament and 
came into these territories largely from Ohio, New York, 
and Pennsylvania. Still, perhaps the predominating in- 
fluence in those early days was exerted by the southern 
type of immigrant. 

Social conditions being thus, one is not surprised to 
read that Illinois for many years passed through a vacil- 
lating school policy, and that she established a state 
educational system rather late in her history. 

In the constitution under which the state was admitted 
to the Union in 1818 not one word respecting schools and 
education is to be found. Nor is there mention made 
of the subject in any of the territorial laws previous to 
this time.^ The authorities seem to have gone on the 
theory that whatever education was needed in the terri- 
tory could best be attended to, privately, by the families 
interested. 

Nevertheless Illinois, like the other states, was granted 
by the Federal Government the sixteenth section of land 
for school purposes. To protect and conserve these 
lands the legislature in 181 7 did enact a law that may be 
regarded as the first school law of the state. At the same 

1 It will be recalled that Abraham Lincoln was one such product of these 
conditions. 

2 Samuel Willard, "History of Education in Illinois" in the J^tk Public School 
Report of Illinois, for 1833 and 1834, p. CIX. 



The Early Northwest 83 

time the legislature incorporated two academies, — one 
at Edwardsville called the Madison Academy, and one 
at Carlyle called the Washington Academy.^ 

In 1825 a "free-school" law was passed in which pro- 
vision was made that one fiftieth of the net taxes of the 
state should be appropriated to education, but the follow- 
ing year the law was repealed. In 1829 the legislature 
"still further tinkered the school law in a small way, 
more completely making the creation of a school an affair 
of voluntary union or subscription. On this basis it 
remained till 1850." ^ 

During this period, however, several "colleges" and 
seminaries were chartered, and the funds derived from 
the salt lands were distributed to them. Thus, although 
the state did not during all this time take an aggressive 
stand for popular education, opportunities for instruction 
were not entirely lacking. The more enterprising towns 
of course had their common schools, and the state as a 
whole was abundantly supplied with private and denomi- 
national academies and seminaries. Still, there was 
little system or unity found anywhere. Textbooks were 
scarce and of various authorship and publications. In 
1835, for example, De Witt had but three spelling books 
to serve a class of thirty pupils.® In the schools pupils 
of the same class made use of any text that by chance 
happened to be available or had been handed down by 
older children of the family or community. Some of 
the books most frequently found were: The Pleasant 
Companion; the New Testament; Miirray's English 
Reader; and Murray's Introduction. These all served as 
readers. Occasionally copies of Weem's Life of Marion, 
and Weem's Life of Washington were used. The other 

1 Ibid., p. cix. 

2 Ibid., p. ex. 

3 Ibid. 



84 Public Secondary Education 

more common works were Morse's Geography, Murray's 
or Kirkham's Grammar, and Pike's Arithmetic} 

So far then as secondary education is concerned, down 
to 1850 none was given in Illinois save in connection 
with seminaries, academies, and colleges; and in the light 
of circumstantial evidence one can well believe that, 
generally, this was not of a high grade. 

Although the title of this chapter hardly warrants the 
consideration here of the schools of Wisconsin, still, for 
the sake of convenience, we may speak briefly of them. 
This state did not pass through the prolonged and vica- 
rious experiences that Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois suffered. 
Of the five states that were made from the old Northwest 
Territory, Wisconsin was the last to be admitted into the 
Union.^ It was settled largely by immigrants that were 
considerably unlike the early settlers of Indiana and 
Illinois, and, with numerous exceptions, not closely 
similar to those of Ohio and Michigan. Being a younger 
state, she profited immensely from the experiences of her 
neighbors, and thus was able to shape her educational 
policy so as to gain most of the advantages possessed by 
the older states and at the same time to avoid the mistakes 
and difficulties experienced by them. Suffice it for our 
purposes to say that from near the outset of her territorial 
history attention was given more or less systematically 
to the question of education and to schools. 

1 Willard op. cii., p. CX. 

2 Wisconsin, became a state in 1848. 



CHAPTER IV 

Early Michigan 

THE early history of Michigan is not greatly dis- 
similar to that of the other states in the Northwest.^ 
Here, too, the French obtained a foothold early in the 
seventeenth centiu-y. In fact, portions of Michigan were 
visited by the adventurous representatives of this nation 
earlier than was any other district in this part of the 
world. The routes of these explorers and priests lay 
through Canada westward of what is now Montreal and 
Quebec. Lake Huron and Lake Superior were therefore 
discovered prior to Lake Erie, and settlements were made 
at Sault Ste. Marie and Mackinac long before the English 
had set foot in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, or Wisconsin, and 
considerably previous to the French explorations there. 
Father Marquette, La Salle, Hennepin, and Joliet had 
opened regular courses or trails across Michigan as early 
as 1680. Cadillac established a post at Detroit in 1701. 
Until the close of the French and Indian War in 1763 
these two allied peoples, the French and the Indians, were 
completely masters of the whole northwest region. With 
the resiilts of that war and the subsequent changes of 
authority in the Northwest, we are already familiar. For 
some strange reason England, after the Peace of Paris in 
1763, opposed the immediate colonization of the western 
territories and, by royal decree, forbade further migra- 
tion into them. This order was not, however, obeyed. 
Nevertheless, until after the close of the Revolutionary 

1 For much of the thought incorporated in the early portion of this chapter 
I am indebted to various general and special histories v.'hich deal with this region — 
some of these are the works of Bancroft, McMaster, Cooley, Campbell, and 
Lanman — also to the Michigan Pioneer Collection Volumes. 

85 



^6 Public Secondary Education 

War the westward movement had not reached beyond 
the Ohio River. 

The Peace of 1763 eliminated one nation from the 
Northwest Territory; the Treaty of 1783 nominally 
banished another. There was only one other human 
contestant left — the Indian; and, trul}^ he was never 
permanently subdued until practically exterminated. 
Nevertheless the victories of Wayne in 1794 and 1795 
brought him sufficiently imder subjection to encourage 
migration, and from this date the Northwest rapidly 
developed. 

But even with the French entirely ousted as a political 
power, the English nominally excluded, and the Indian 
temporarily conquered, not all enemies and dangers had 
disappeared. There were other perils before which any 
but strong hearts and steadfast spirits would have quailed. 
There were streams to cross, forests to clear, roads to 
make, and homes to build; there were wild animals to 
drive away and prowling Indians to watch; there was 
scantiness of food and clothing and a greater scantiness 
of mental nourishment; there were dangers from dis- 
eases common to all irregular and unhygienic modes of 
life and especially common to portions of the Northwest, 
owing to the low elevations of land and the presence of 
numerous swampy, marshy, and stagnant waters. These 
dank and dark sections polluted the air with noxious 
germs; gave birth to hordes of noisome and poisonous 
insects, creeping things, and reptiles; and filled the system 
with malarial affections. Add to these material and 
physical hardships, the lack of means of commimi cation, 
of near-by friends and neighbors, of books, papers, and 
magazines, of schools and churches, and one gets perhaps 
a general, though miniature, picture of what pioneer life 
in the Northwest really was. 



Early Michigan 87 

These conditions apply pretty generally to all parts of 
this territory, but are especially true of the district 
lying in southeastern Michigan. Along the shores of 
Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, as well as on the banks of 
the Detroit and St. Clair rivers, the land is still, through- 
out much of its extent, low, marshy, and untillable. 
One hundred and twenty years ago, before artificial 
drainage was known; when the luxuriant vegetation 
caused perhaps a greater annual precipitation of rainfall; 
and when surely the uncleared trees, brush, and grasses 
checked the ready entrance of the sunlight and winds 
and thus prevented the rapid evaporation of this moisture, 
one cannot doubt that the climatic conditions were not 
salubrious. Of course, as is well known to-day, the lands 
lying back from this border belt are of considerable 
elevation, enjoy a healthful climate, and are exceedingly 
fertile. But this fact was not discovered or accepted 
for several years after the Northwest was opened for 
settlement. Explorers and surveyors judged the whole 
territory of Michigan from the conditions they encotm- 
tered at the boundaries. They penetrated to the shores 
of the Maumee River ;^ they plowed their way through 
the lowlands to Detroit; they gazed, from this edge, off 
to the west and the north; and then they returned to 
report that Michigan was a land of pestilence and poison 
— filled with reeds, rushes, and flags; the breeding place 
of mosquitoes, beetles, and snakes; and the home of 
chills, fevers, and agues. These reports were, of course, 
wide of the truth. Nevertheless, they had the effect of 
deflecting the tide of western migration so that Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri were settled and admitted 

1 It should be kept in mind that, until 1837, the southern boundary of Michigan 
extended from the southernmost point of Lake Michigan to the mouth of the 
Maumee River, and thus Michigan Territory included what is now portions of 
Toledo. The dispute over this strip of land led to the Toledo War, settled in 1837. 



88 Public Secondary Education 

into the Union as states considerably before Michigan 
was truly discovered. Even after the falsity of the early 
reports had been proved there seemed to be a superstitious 
fear about entering this "God-forsaken land," and it 
was only late in the third decade of the century that 
extensive migration really set in toward this district. 

In many ways, however, these delays in settlement 
redounded to the educational advantage of Michigan. 
Reference has already been made several times to the 
extensive land grants made to the various states by the 
Federal government for school purposes. We have seen, 
too, that owing to inexperience, to indifference, to the 
more or less chaotic social and legal conditions existing 
in the territories, to an unfortunate principle in the land 
ordinance itself, and to the abundance and cheapness of 
land on all sides there developed a carelessness of, if not a 
veritable contempt for, the gift, and consequently there 
resulted, ultimately, a great public misfortune. Much of 
the proceeds that might have been obtained from these 
school sections was never secured, and much of the 
fund that was derived was ill administered and either 
wasted or lost. 

Michigan, as we have hinted, profited from the experi- 
ences of these earlier states and avoided many of the 
pitfalls into which they had plunged. Moreover, a 
fortunate change in the Federal policy and a happy 
wording of the later ordinances respecting land grants 
secured for Michigan, as a unit, the control of school 
lands, and thus brought to bear a more intelligent, con- 
sistent, and far-sighted administration of them. While 
Michigan did not derive from these gifts the amounts 
of revenue she ought, she -did conserve the legacies better 
than most of the states preceding her had done. These 
lands at least served as a basis for planning an ideal of 



Early Michigan 89 

education which, if not entirely realized or realizable, 
put her public schools far in advance of those of most 
of the states adjoining her. 

Another important contributing factor in the early- 
history of education in Michigan is that her first settlers 
were, to a large extent, immigrants either directly or 
indirectly from New England, and hence were imbued 
with the New England idea of state education for all. 
The settlers who migrated to Indiana, Illinois, and Mis- 
souri were, as has already been pointed out, drawn largely 
from the South and the Southeast. The immigrants 
to Michigan were, for the most part, from Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and western New 
York, while many of those from this latter state had, in an 
earlier day, moved thither from New England. Natur- 
ally, therefore, the religious, political, social, and educa- 
tional ideas of the East came to predominate noticeably 
in this new territory and state. 

With this brief sketch of Michigan's early social and 
material conditions, let us turn to the early educational 
history. 

No doubt there were meager elementary schools to be 
found at the various military posts or settlements of the 
French from an early day. These were either entirely 
private in character or else were under the control and 
support of the Catholic Church, whose priests and mis- 
sionaries were found wherever a French settlement was 
made. It is quite certain that there was such a church 
school at Detroit as early as 1755. In 1775 a private 
school was also in existence here.^ Doubtless, too, there 
were similar schools at Mackinaw, Sault Ste. Marie, 
and other places. These, however, have little interest 
for our study. 

1 McLaughlin, History of Higher Education in Michigan, p. 14. 



go Public Secondary Education 

The true foundation for the educational system and the 
educational history of Michigan was, as in the case of the 
other states admitted after 1800, the famous Land Ordi- 
nance of 1785. This ordinance, it will be recalled, pro- 
vided for the survey of all public lands into townships 
six miles square and containing twenty-three thousand 
and forty acres each. Starting at the intersection of 
a chosen meridian called the "principal meridian," and a 
chosen parallel of latitude styled the "base line," sur- 
veyors were to lay off, so it was planned, the entire terri- 
tory belonging to the public domain. Each township 
was in turn to be divided into thirty-six equal parts 
called sections, each section to contain one thirty-sixth 
part of thirty-six square miles, or six hundred and forty 
acres. Again each section was subdivided into quarter 
sections containing one hundred and sixty acres, and 
finally each quarter was likewise divided into four equal 
parts containing forty acres each. This was the limit 
of division according to the public or governmental 
survey. The last two types of division have no immediate 
connection with our theme. The other two have. 

In order to plot the land definitely and to designate 
accurately in deeds, mortgages, and other legal papers 
the exact portion of land in question, the government 
provided that each section of each township should bear 
a distinct number. These extend from one to thirty-six, 
and, beginning in the upper or northeast section of each 
township, are numbered, in order, across and back that 
particular division of thirty-six square miles. The plans 
or ideas are graphically shown in the following repre- 
sentations. 

Each row of townships to the east or to the west of the 
principal meridian is styled a "range," and these ranges 
are numbered in accordance with their location respecting 



Early Michigan 



91 



the principal meridian. Likewise, each row of town- 
ships north or south of the base line is referred to 

SIX MILES . 



6 


5 


4 


3 


2 


1 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


18 


17 


16 


15 


14 


13 


19 


20 


21 


22 


23 


24 


30 


29 


28 


27 


26 


25 


31 


32 


33 


34 


35 


36 



ONE MILE 



1 
160 




40 
Acres 


Ac;res 

1 






1 
160 






Acres 

1 

1 







A SECTION 



A TOWNSHIP 

that line and numbered accordingly. Hence there are 
townships north of the base line and townships south of 
the base line. There are also ranges east of the princi- 
pal meridian and ranges west of the principal meridian. 
The following diagram represents the nomenclature 
graphically. 



BASE 



LINE 



w- 



To locate definitely any tract of land above forty 
acres is , therefore, a simple and easy matter. For example , 



92 Public Secondary Education 

Township 4 North, Range 3 East (which for brevity is 
written Tp. 4N, R3E) signifies the township which lies 
in the row of townships four removes north of the base 
line and in the range of towTiships three removes east 
of the principal or standard meridian. This particular 
township is indicated on our diagram by the cross (x). 
If, further, one wishes to locate section sixteen of the 
above township, one need only to follow down the sec- 
tions from the northeast comer of the tov/nship to num- 
ber sixteen, which necessarily always lies near the center 
of the township. Hence when Congress granted this 
section in each township to school purposes, it set aside 
a definitely located and unvarying portion of land. 
Chance, of course, might determine that section number 
sixteen, in some townships, would lie in fertile, salubrious, 
and highly desirable and valuable districts, while in others 
it might coincide, in whole or in part, with ponds, lakes, 
swamps, marshes, moimtains, or other less desirable 
tracts. Nevertheless the average value was usually 
high, and in consequence the lands, which were given to 
the territories or states directly as wholes, brought into 
their treasuries considerable siims. Speaking of the Ordi- 
nance of 1785, Governor Woodbridge wrote as follows: 
"This [the Ordinance] was in fact an invitation to all the 
world to buy; and among other inducements held out, 
it was therein promised to all who should go out and 
settle there, that one thirty-sixth part of the whole coun- 
try should be applied forever as a fund for the advance- 
ment of Education. It contained a promise to all who 
should buy there — it amounted to a solemn covenant 
with each purchaser and settler in every township, that 
he and his posterity forever shovild in all future time, in 
common with the other settlers in the township, be en- 
titled to the usufruct of that fund as a means of educating 



Early Michigan 93 

his children. What an inducement was this with the 
father of a family to go out and settle there,"* 

However, as we have seen in the earlier pages of this 
chapter, Michigan was not rapidly settled at first because 
of various mistaken notions respecting soil and climate. 
In 1803, when Ohio was admitted to the Union, there were 
in Michigan Territory probably not four thousand per- 
sons, and these were mostly French.^ In 181 1 "there 
were in Michigan only nine principal settlements. These 
were on the River Miamii, the Raisin, the Huron of Lake 
Erie, Ecorse, Rouge, Detroit, Huron of St. Clair, the 
Island of Mackinac, besides several groups of cabins 
scattered throughout the forest. The aggregate popula- 
tion of Michigan at that time was 4,860, four fifths of 
whom were French, and the remainder Americans, with 
a small portion of British."^ In 1820 the settlers had 
increased to ten thousand — still mostly French — and 
by 1830 the population was given as but thirty- two 
thousand.* After 1825 the population in Michigan in- 
creased rapidly, owing largely to the opening of the Erie 
Canal in that year. This new water course opened a 
direct means of communication between Detroit and the 
Atlantic coast and thus stimulated trade in the whole 
Northwest. 

When Michigan was set off from Indiana in 1805, some 
kind of a school law seems to have been enacted, but all 
records of it have been lost. In 1809 a second school law 
was passed, but the provisions and details of this one 
are likewise unknown. In 1804 a Catholic girls' academy 

1 Taken from a letter written by Governor Woodbridge of Michigan to the 
Department of Education of that state. It is mentioned in Report of Public 
Instruction for Michigan in 1832, p. 2. 

2 Mayo, "Education in the Northwest," U.S. Com. Report, 1894-189^, Vol. 2, 
pp. ISI3#. 

3 Lanman, History of Michigan, pp.18 1-2, and based on the "Memorial from 
Michigan," in American State Papers. 

4 Mayo, ibid. 




Growth of population from 1810 to i8go 



P4 



Early Michigan 95 

was established at Detroit by Father Gabriel Richard, 
an influential French priest who was stationed in Michigan 
at that time and who later played a notable part in the 
history of public education in the territory. During 
this same year there was opened, also at Detroit, a boys' 
school, in which, in addition to the elementary subjects, 
Latin and history were to be taught.^ 

Both of these schools were extremely elementary in 
character and were not public schools in any modern 
sense of the phrase. Indeed, they were probably sup- 
ported and directed entirely by the Catholic church. 
Since, too, at this time most of the inhabitants at Detroit 
were French, it is presimiable that the instruction in 
these schools was conducted entirely in the French lan- 
guage. Whether the attendance was limited to adherents 
of the Catholic church is not known, but in all probability 
such restriction was not made. At best, however, little 
is definitely recorded respecting any of these early at- 
tempts at education, nor are their histories vital to our 
study. 

The real beginnings of a system of public schools for 
Michigan were first laid in 181 7. In that year the terri- 
torial legislature passed a bill creating the pretentious 
and comprehensive institution called the "University of 
Michigania." This strange and cumbersome scheme of 
education has been made a subject of ridicule and raillery 
by nearly every writer who has dealt with the history of 
education in Michigan. Each one seems to have felt 

1 McLaughlin, op. cit., p. 15. In 1808 Father Richard sent a memorial to 
the legislature in which he called attention to the schools in and about 
Detroit and presented their needs. He declared that in the two girls' schools 
"better than thirty jroung girls]' were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, 
knitting, sewing, spinning, and similar subjects. In these two schools were 
"three dozen spinning wheels and one loom on which four pieces of linen or 
woolen cloth" had been made the past spring or summer. Orders had been 
given for the purchase of "a spinning machine of a hundred spindles" — and 
for a "few colors for dyeing the stufiEs already made or to be made.'! (.Mich- 
igan Pioneer Collection, I, p. 347.) 



g6 Public Secondary Education 

it incumbent upon him to strike a blow at this weak but 
venerable project, or else to excuse it as resulting from 
hasty and ill-considered action. In truth, there is no 
denying the fact that the plan was pedantic, bombastic, 
and even ridiculous, but it contained in essence educational 
principles that were far beyond the ken of the average 
citizen, legislator, or educator of the day, and indeed far 
beyond the realization in practice of any state or nation 
of this century. 

Neither had this law a monopoly on all the pedantry, 
pretense, and high-sounding phraseology known to the 
day. A period in which many of the most cultured and 
most scholarly men of the time punctuated and empha- 
sized their letters, conversations, and addresses with 
Latin quotations and Latin and Greek terms and refer- 
ences; a time when magazine writers and statesmen were 
wont to fill their articles with allusions to Rome and to 
ancient heroes ; a time just previous to which a proposition 
was seriously considered and all but adopted in the Con- 
gress of the United States to give to the states in the 
Northwest such names as Cherronesus, Metropotamia, 
Assenisippia, Polypotamia, and Pelesipia^ — such a time 
could expect nothing less than a document so worded. 

Neither is the idea of a strongly centralized school 
system inexplicable. Michigan was, as we have seen, 
still largely French in population, and the French ideas 
of Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI, and the 
centralizing theories of Napoleon, naturally, to many, 
furnished the ideal of government and of state policy. 
There is no doubt, too, that the members of the territo- 
rial legislature were influenced by legislation and opinion 
found in certain other states in America. Twenty-one 

1 These names are attributed by Professor Hart to the suggestion of Thomas 
Jefferson. They appear in the Land Ordinance of 1784. See Hart's Formation 
of the Union, p. 108. 



Early Michigan 97 

years before, Jefferson's scheme for a complete system 
of schools for Virginia had been made into a permis- 
sive law for that state. In New York, as early as 1784, 
the legislature created an institution which in many 
respects was then, and is to-day, very similar to the first 
school authority in Michigan.^ Likewise, too, Georgia 
in 1785 established a imiversity to which the institution 
of Michigan bore close resemblance. Indeed, in the act 
incorporating the University of Michigania the framers 
themselves acknowledge their indebtedness to seven of 
the original states. 

Though the substance of the Act passed in 181 7 has 
often been put into print, the entire bill deserves a place 
in this treatment, even though such inclusion be at the 
risk of tedium, for the imiversity thus created is still in 
existence and its early history was most intimately con- 
nected with secondary education in the state. The full 
text follows : 

An act to establish the Catholepistemiad, or University of 
Michigania. 

Be it enacted by the Governor and the Judges of the Territory of 
Michigan, That there shall be in the said Territory a Cathol- 
epistemiad 2 or University, denominated the Catholepistemiad or 
University of Michigania, The Catholepistemiad or University 
of Michigania shall be composed of thirteen Didaxum or professor- 
ships; first a Didaxia or Professorship of Catholepistemia, or 
universal science, the Didactor or professor of which shall be Presi- 
dent of the Institution; Second, a Didaxia or professorship of 
Anthropoglossica or literature emibracing all the Epistemum or 
sciences relative to language; Third, a Didaxia or professorship 
of Mathematica or Mathematics; Fourth, a Didaxia or professor- 
ship of Physiognostica, or Natural History; Fifth, a Didaxia or 
professorship of Physiosophica or Natural Philosophy; Sixth, a 
Didaxia or professorship of Astronomia or Astronomy; Seventh, 

1 Brown, The Making of Our Middle Schools, p. 309. 

2 For an explanation of the terms used here, see Campbell's Political History of 
Michigan, p. 388; or Salmon's Education in Michigan during the Territorial Period, 
p. 4, note. 

8 



pS Public Secondary Education 

a Didaxia or professorship of Chymia or Chemistry; Eighth, a 
Didaxia or professorship of latuca or Medical Sciences; Ninth, a 
Didaxia or professorship of Oeconomia, or Economical Sciences; 
Tenth, a Didaxia or professorship of Ethica, or Ethical Sciences; 
Eleventh, a Didaxia or professorship of Polemitactics, or Military 
Sciences; Twelfth, a Didaxia or professorship of Diegetica, or 
Historical Sciences; and Thirteenth, a Didaxia or professorship of 
Eunoeica, or Intellectual Sciences, embracing all the Epistemum 
or sciences relative to the minds of animals, to the human mind, to 
spiritual existence, to the Deity, and to Religion; the Didactor or 
professor of which shall be Vice President of the Institution. The 
Didactors or professors shall be appointed and commissioned by 
the Governor. There shall be paid from the Treasury of Michigan, 
in quarterly payments, to the President of the Institution, and to 
each Didactor or Professor, an annual salary to be from time to time 
ascertained by law. More than one Didaxia or professorship may 
be conferred upon the same person. The President and Didactors, 
or professors, a majority of them assembled, shall have power to 
regulate all the concerns of the Institution, to enact laws for that 
purpose, to sue, to be sued, to acquire, to hold and to alien property, 
real, mixed and personal, to make, to use and to alter a seal, to 
establish colleges, academies, schools, libraries, museums, athe- 
noeums. Botanic gardens, laboratories, and other useful literary 
and scientific institutions, consonant to the laws of the United 
States of America, and of Michigan, and to appoint officers, in- 
structors and instructri in, among, and throughout the various 
counties, cities, towns, townships, and other geographical divisions 
of Michigan. Their name and style as a corporation, shall be 
"The Catholepistemiad or University of Michigania." To every 
subordinate instructor and instructrix, appointed by the Cathol- 
epistemiad or University there shall be paid from the treasury of 
Michigan, in quarterly payments, an annual salary, to be, from time 
to time, ascertained by law. The existing public taxes are hereby 
increased fifteen per cent; and from the proceeds of the present, 
and of all future public taxes fifteen per cent are appropriated for 
the benefit of the Catholepistemiad or University. The Treasurer 
of Michigan shall keep a separate account of the University fund. 
The Catholepistemiad or University may prepare and draw four 
successive lotteries, deducting from the prizes in the same fifteen 
per cent for the benefit of the Institution. The proceeds of the 
preceding sources of revenue, and of all subsequent, shall be applied, 



Early Michigan 99 

in the first instance, to the acquisition of suitable lands and build- 
ings, and books, libraries and apparatus, and afterwards to such 
purposes as shall be, from time to time, by law directed. The 
Honorarium for a course of lectures shall not exceed fifteen dollars: 
for classical instruction, ten dollars a quarter, and for ordinary 
instruction, six dollars a Quarter. If the Judges of the court of 
any county, or a majority of them shall certify that the parent or 
guardian of any person has not adequate means to defray the 
expense of suitable instruction, and that the same ought to be a 
public charge, the honorarium shall be paid from the Treasury of 
Michigan. An annual report of the Institution shall be laid before 
the legislative power for the time being. This law, or any part of 
it, may be repealed by the legislative power, for the time being. 
Made, adopted and published from the laws of seven of the original 
states, to wit: the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New 
Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, as far as 
necessary and suitable to the circumstances of Michigan, at Detroit, 
on Tuesday the twenty-sixth day of August, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventeen. 
William Woodbridge, 

Secretary of Michigan and at present acting Governor thereoi. 
A. B. Woodward, 

Presiding Judge of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Michigan. 
John Griffin, 

One of the Judges of the Territory of Michigan. 1 

Here, then, was a central Board of Education having 
charge of the whole subject of education within the state 
and empowered to establish schools of all kinds and grades, 
to appoint instructors and supervisors in them, and to 
administer all funds that might accrue from any and all 
sources for the support of education. The central board 
was to serve in the double capacity of a teaching and 
an administering body. Thirteen professorships were 
created and the holders of two of these, specifically 
named, were to be the president and the vice-president, 
respectively, of the imiversity. The support of the insti- 
tution was provided for by increasing the tax rate fifteen 

1 This transcribed Act is incorporated in the annual report of Superintendent 
F. W. Shearman for 1852, and is certified to by the Deputy Secretary of State, 
R. R. Gibson, as "a true copy of the original." See Shearman's Public Instruction 
and School Law of Michigan for 1852, pp. 4 and 5. 



loo Public Secondary Education 

per cent, and by authorizing four lotteries. In addition, 
the imiversity had the proceeds of forty-six thousand and 
eighty acres of land — that is, two whole townships — 
granted to the territory by the Federal government for 
the encouragement and support of a seminary of learning. 
This was increased by the gift of three whole sections of 
land generously granted by the Indians for the support 
of a central college to be located at Detroit. This bequest 
was made by the chiefs of the Ottawas, Chippewas, and 
Pottawatomies in the treaty of Fort Meigs, signed at 
Detroit, September 29, 1817.^ 

When one further analyzes this historic document he 
is struck by several far-reaching and advanced principles 
that are incorporated in it. First and foremost the atten- 
tion is fixed on the scope of the educational fields that 
were to be tilled. These embrace the whole group of 
literature, science, and the arts, together with the depart- 
ments of philosophy, medicine, divinity, and military 
tactics. The only traditional college subject that seems 
to be lacking is that of law, and the intention may have 
been to treat of this under one of the given Didaximi. 
Moreover, in administering education, provision is made 
for schools of every grade — from the elementary, through 
the secondary, to the college and the imiversity. Like- 
wise, too, full power is given to establish collateral school 
agencies like libraries, museums, and laboratories. 

A second imderlying principle foimd here is that of the 
complete public control and support of schools. In the 
Act itself no indication is given that private or denomi- 
national schools would not be allowed, but the idea seems 
to have been to make the state system so complete that 
there would be neither need nor place for any other type 
of schools. 

1 Cooley, History of Michigan, p. 312. 



Early Michigan loi 

Again, the principle of concentration of power finds 
here ample expression. It may seem a little strange that 
a territory that was but two years out from under the 
nominal military control of tyrannical George III, and 
was surroimded by examples of the principle of decen- 
tralization in school matters, should voluntarily choose 
this course, but the French traditions and the French 
constituency in the territory at this time doubtless give 
the explanation. 

Then, there are seen the principle of accountability of 
public servants to the people represented in their legis- 
lature; the exact auditing of funds; and the education of 
the poor and needy at full public expense. Education is 
not made compulsory, or absolutely free, but it is made 
possible for all ranks and classes. 

Acting on the powers bestowed in this strange document 
the governor of the territory appointed the first faculty 
of the university. Inasmuch as authority was expressly 
given whereby one person might hold more than one 
"Didaxia" or professorship, the courses were so grouped 
and the work so adjusted that two men alone constituted 
the first educational system of the territory. Rev. John 
Monteith, a Presbyterian minister, was made president 
and weighted with seven professorships, and Father 
Gabriel Richard, the Catholic priest previously men- 
tioned in this chapter, was made vice-president and given 
six professorships. Their salaries were fixed by law at 
twelve dollars and one-half per year for each professor- 
ship. Thus the president for his services was to receive 
the munificent sum of eighty-seven dollars and one-half, 
annually, and his able assistant was expected to content 
himself with what seventy-five dollars could purchase. 
Here, truly, is an illustration of the world's policy of 
pa3dng her educators largely in honors that may satisfy 



102 Public Secondary Education 

the spirit, rather than in generous portions of lucre that 
may contribute to the physical needs. The dictum of 
"plain living and high thinking" has, in the teacher's 
calling, not only been arbitrarily enforced but has been 
worn through with triteness. Nevertheless, no word of 
complaint seems to have escaped either from Mr. Mon- 
tieth or from Mr. Richard, but, Hke good schoolmen 
ever, they both served their generation and left posterity 
to judge of their true merits. 

The scheme for the imiversity as it was planned never 
went into operation. However, some elementary edu- 
cation was encouraged, and at Detroit an elementary 
school was established. Possibly similar schools were 
started at Monroe and Mackinaw.^ In October of this 
same year, 1817,^ a college or academy was opened in 
Detroit and was styled the "First College of Michigania." 
The resources for this school were derived in part from 
the territorial funds at the disposal of the faculty of the 
university; in part from the sections of land granted by the 
Indians specifically for this school; and in part from free- 
will contributions by the citizens of Detroit. The larg- 
est share of the funds was secured from this last source.^ 

In 18 18 a classical school was also opened in Detroit. 
This school, together with a library, occupied the second 
floor of a new building erected for its accommodation, 
while the English school was conducted on the first floor. 
Here then is a suggestion of a "high school"* four years 
before the estabHshment of the Boston English Classical 

1 McLaughlin, op. cit., p. 82. 

2 The cornerstone of this so-called "first hall of the University" was laid 
Sept. 26, 1817. (See Detroit Gazelle for Sept. 26, i8i7t as indicated by Miss 
Salmon, op. cit., p. 11.) 

3 The school, of course, was not called the "High School." It was really the 
first branch of the "University." Its teachers were authorized by the university 
and the university exercised supervision over it. No taxes were ever raised for it, 
and no lottery sold. "The only sense in which it could be called a public school 
is that instruction was given in a building erected by general subscription." The 
Classical Academy was kept up as part of the university until October, 1827. 
(Salmon, op. cit,, pp. 13 and 14.) 



Early Michigan 103 

School and about six years before the word "high" was 
used to designate that school. The Faculty of the 
University of Michigania voted that the program of 
studies to be offered in this classical school should consist 
of "French, Latin, and Greek antiquities, English gram- 
mar, composition, elocution, mathematics, geography, 
morals, and ornamental accomplishments."^ 

The project of a college at Detroit did not flourish, 
and in a year or so seems to have been abandoned. None 
of the other attempts at the establishment of schools was 
very successful, and the university authorities appear 
to have made no further efforts to exercise their powers. 

In 182 1 the legislature repealed the law of 18 17 in its 
entirety. At the same time, however, it enacted a new 
law establishing or perpetuating the same type of 
institution as the old Catholepistemiad, but under less 
pretentious nomenclature and with powers more defi- 
nitely distributed. In place of imposing all authority on 
a teaching faculty or board, the new organization — called 
now simply the University of Michigan — was composed 
of twenty-one trustees. To them were delegated essen- 
tially the same administrative powers that the old board 
possessed, — that is, the sole conduct of all public educa- 
tion in the territory. They were given authority to 
establish secondary schools which should be dependent 
on the university, to visit and inspect these schools, to 
make all necessary rules and regulations respecting them, 
and to appoint and remove teachers within them. 

This same law of 182 1 also repealed the provision for a 
territorial educational tax of fifteen per cent, and thereby 
forced the university to depend for its fimds entirely 
upon gifts and upon the proceeds from public lands 
specifically devoted to this end. 

J Salmon, op. cit., p. 5. 



104 Public Secondary Education 

The legislation of 182 1, with some subsequent slight 
modifications of detail, remained in force until 1837, when 
Michigan was admitted to the Union as a state. During 
all this time, however, the university as a central college 
existed only in name, nor was any attention given to 
providing dependencies or branch secondary schools 
other than one at Detroit.^ This endured, as we have 
said, until October, 1827.^ 

These two laws of 181 7 and 182 1 do nevertheless reveal 
certain general tendencies and contain beneath, their 
verbiage certain great educational principles upon which 
Michigan has always built her practice. Miss Salmon 
in her study of Education in Michigan during the Terri- 
torial Period aptly summarizes them in this form : ' ' First, 
the State thus early announced the policy of carrying 
on Education at public expense rather than leaving it 
entirely to private philanthropy, whim, or diversity; 
second, that the University as a school was to be the head 
and crown of the whole state system and that all ele- 
mentary, secondary, and collegiate instruction was to 
bear a close relation to the work in the University; third, 
that the University was to be and remain forever an abso- 
lutely non-sectarian institution; fourth, courses of study 
were to be made so complete that there would be no 
temptation offered to the youth of the State to go else- 
where for an education, even of a professional character; 
and, fifth, instruction was to be placed within the reach 
of all by reducing the expense to a minimum."^ 

As previously noticed, there is much in these two 
acts that suggests French influences and French pro- 
pensities within the state. Like the French government 
at home, these laws provided no exercise of democratic 

1 op. cit., p. 13. 

2 Ibid., p. 14. 

3 Ibid., p. s. 



Early Michigan 105 

or local initiative, but specifically planned for a cen- 
tralized, bureaucratic, and paternalistic domination. 
There is no suggestion of the English idea of communal 
self-government. The people of the Territory of Michi- 
gan at this time neither knew nor cared for the rights 
of suffrage, representative government, or self-direction. 
Indeed, they probably as a class were not fit for the 
exercise of these high functions of liberty. 

The Ordinance of 1787 provided that whenever any 
organized territory attained to a population of five 
thousand souls it should be entitled to an elected house 
of representatives which should exercise joint authority 
with the appointed council. In 18 18 Michigan possessed 
the requisite number of inhabitants and the decision was 
left to the citizens whether or not they would send repre- 
sentatives to the legislature. The proposition was voted 
down most emphatically and overwhelmingly.^ The 
people seemed not to wish the trouble of conducting their 
own affairs. It was so much easier to have government 
imposed upon them than to devise and execute laws for 
themselves. Contented shiftlessness, whose only wish 
is to be left alone, is so much more easily preserved than is 
self -exertion that aims at ideals which are beyond the 
immediate reach. This was the spirit that prevailed 
among many citizens of this territory in the days before 
1825. This was the spirit that largely explains the fact 
that the French in America in one hundred and fifty 
years did not develop enough energy and real purpose 
to make their hold here permanent. This spirit was the 
characteristic spirit of the French peasants and burghers 
of the seventeenth century. 

Still the delay of freedom — self-imposed, as it were — 
carried no ultimate evils for the new territory and state. 

1 Putnam, Primary and Secondary Education in Michigan, p. 9- 



io6 Public Secondary Education 

Government was administered beneficently by the 
guardians until the wards did attain to their majority. 
Then they took up the control for themselves and exer- 
cised their powers more wisely and less painfully, we must 
think, than they otherwise would without the period of 
tutelage. 

By 1827 Michigan had come to feel her latent strength 
and had asked for, and received, a representative voice 
in the legislature. This same year the territory was laid 
off into civil townships with elective township officers 
and with more or less complete local autonomy. About 
this same period, too, occurred the beginnings of a great 
migration of New England families into the territory, 
just as almost an exact two hundred years earlier the 
great migrations from Old England to New England were 
occurring. 

These new influences were felt at once and are seen 
perhaps best and most characteristically in the school 
legislation of 1827. An act of this year seems to have 
been modeled pretty literally upon the Massachusetts 
School Law of 1647. It was enacted that every township 
of fifty families should at once provide its youth with 
elementary instruction for an aggregated period of not 
less than six months per year. The wording of the law 
seems to imply that the township school was expected 
to be a traveling school, and that its operations would be 
carried on a short term in each of the several districts 
into which the township might be divided. The same 
law further required that, in townships having a popula- 
tion of one hundred families, an elementary school should 
be supported for at least twelve weeks in the aggregate 
in the year. If the township possessed one hundred and 
fifty families an "English school" was to be erected in 
addition to the elementary school; and if the township 



Early Michigan 107 

contained two hundred families there was required, in 
addition to all the other schools, the establishment of a 
"grammar school," in which Latin, French, and English 
were to be taught. In case the township possessed one 
hundred and fifty families the elementary school was to 
be open six months in the year and the "English school" 
(which seems to have been only a somewhat advanced 
elementary school) was to be open twelve months. 
Where there were two hundred families the law required 
a six months' term for the elementary school, a twelve 
months' term for the English School, and a twelve months' 
term for the grammar school. All these were prob- 
ably traveling schools or else short-term schools held 
simultaneously in each portion of the township. 

To insure the enforcement of the law a penalty was 
imposed for non-compliance and this was graduated to the 
size of the community. This varied from a fine of fifty 
dollars in townships of fifty families, up to a fine of 
one hundred and fifty dollars in townships of two 
hundred families.^ 

Here then were the real beginnings of a working system 
of public elementary and secondary education in Michigan. 
Considering the character and number of the inhabitants 
of the territory, which at this time did not exceed thirty 
thousand, and considering the earlier history and tradi- 
tions of Michigan, this law was as progressive as one 
could expect or perhaps desire. If it had been strictly 
enforced Michigan might have made even a better start 
in education than she did. But, alas! what the law fos- 
tered and encouraged in one clause, it discouraged and 
rendered partially nugatory in another. Despite the 
threats of heavy fines for non-compliance with its terms, 
the law was only permissive after all. In case two thirds 

1 Putnam, op. cit., p. lo. 



io8 Public Secondary Education 

of the voters in any township decided that the law should 
not be put into operation in their township such decision 
was to be final. One could not justly expect that inhabi- 
tants so long unaccustomed to public schools, to self- 
imposed taxation, and to local autonomy would instantly 
and unanimously rise to the opportimity and act most 
wisely. Nor did they. Few, if any, schools were thus 
established, and the following year the legislature — now 
thoroughly reacting against the former rule of centrali- 
zation — took one further step toward complete decen- 
tralization: the district instead of the township was 
officially and legally made the school unit. 

No further change of any considerable importance, 
save one, was made in the school law until Michigan was 
admitted as a state in 1837. During this decade, how- 
ever, there was formed a Territorial Department of Edu- 
cation with a State Superintendent of Public Instruction 
at its head. This was in 1829. When Michigan became 
a state this office was provided for by the state constitu- 
tion, she being the first commonwealth thus to make this 
office permanent through the fundamental instrument 
of government. 

Thus at the close of the territorial period there was in 
Michigan nominal provision for elementary education in 
every district; a series of branches, colleges, seminaries, 
and other schools furnishing secondary education, either 
privately or under the direction and support of the state; 
and at the focal point toward which all these converged, 
a state university. As a matter of fact, however, as we 
have already seen, there was no such articulated and 
complete system at all — and indeed no organization that 
deserves the name "system." The central university 
as a teaching college did not exist save as an intangible 
ideal. Elementary schools were operating in but few 



Early Michigan 109 

localities, while private and denominational associations 
furnished whatever education there was of a secondary- 
character. These last institutions, however, offered a 
fair education considering the poverty of the country and 
the educational ideals and methods in vogue at the time. 
They did not confine their efforts solely to giving second- 
ary instruction, but included infant schools, free charity 
schools, ladies' seminaries, private high schools for boys, 
manual labor schools, mechanics arts schools, and 
Lancastrian academies.^ 

At the close of the territorial period of Michigan one 
can safely declare that the state had high and noble ambi- 
tions and ideals for the future, but despite her territorial 
dreams and laws she had few accomplished results and 
concrete institutions of which to boast. She now gathered 
her resources together, strengthened herself for her tasks, 
and forged ahead. 

1 Salrnon, op. cit., pp. i6#. These titles are suggested from the announcements 
made by the schools themselves in the Detroit papers from 182 1 to 1836. Beside the 
common English branches there were advertised rhetoric, higher mathematics 
including surveying and navigation, natural philosophy, chemistry, Latin, Greek, 
and French. One school taught in addition to these branches Spanish, Italian, 
and German. "Needlework," says Miss Salmon, "is often included in the course 
in young ladies' academies." 



CHAPTER V 

Putting the Constitutional Provisions into Effect 

MICHIGAN was admitted to the Union in 1 83 7 . Two 
years earlier, however, the people of the territory 
had held a convention, drawn a state constitution, 
ratified this at the polls, and made formal application to 
the United States Congress for recognition. All this had 
occurred before November, 1835, but owing to a dispute 
respecting the southern boundary line, final steps in 
admitting her were deferred more than a year. This 
dispute, which for a time threatened the peace and 
amicability of both Ohio and Michigan, and which led 
to the mobilization of troops by both states, was finally 
settled without bloodshed. Ohio was given the disputed 
tract of land, but in order to compensate Michigan, 
satisfy her pride, and stop her woimds, there was added 
to her territory what is now the whole Upper Peninsula. 
This district by natural contiguity was a portion of the 
territory of Wisconsin and was organized as a part of it. 
Congress has, however, the constitutional right to divide 
and organize the public domain as it sees fit, and in 
consequence no legally valid criticism can be made 
against its action in this case.^ 

The educational provisions in the new constitution of 
Michigan were, like most of the earlier territorial legisla- 
tion, made up of pleasing and soothing generalities, of 
permissive powers, and of expressions of an educational 
ideal that was both vague in outline and indistinct in 

1 This threatened outbreak between Ohio and Michigan is styled the "Toledo 
War," inasmuch as the quarrel centered about the jurisdiction of this grow- 
ing town. 

no 



Putting the Constitutional Provisions into Effect 1 1 1 

respect to means and method of attainment. The 
entire five sections pertaining to the subject read as 
follows : 

1. "The Governor shall nominate, and by and with the advice 
and consent of the Legislature, in joint vote, shall appoint a Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction, who shall hold his office for two years 
and whose duties shall be prescribed by law. 

2. '"The Legislature shall encourage, by all suitable means, the 
promotion of intellectual, scientifical, and agricultural improvement. 
The proceeds of all lands that have been or hereafter may be granted 
by the United States to this state for the support of schools, which 
shall hereafter be sold or disposed of, shall be and remain a perpetual 
fund; the interest of which, together with the rents of all such 
unsold lands, shall be inviolably appropriated to the support of 
schools throughout the state. 

3. "The Legislature shall provide for a system of common schools 
by which a school shall be kept up and supported in each school 
district at least three months in every year ; and any school district 
neglecting to keep up and support such a school may be deprived 
of its equal proportion of the interest of the public fund. 

4. "As soon as the circumstances of the state will permit, the 
Legislature shall provide for the establishment of libraries; one at 
least in each township; and the money which shall be paid by 
persons as equivalent for exemption from military duty, and the 
clear proceeds of all fines assessed in the several counties for any 
breach of the penal laws, shall be exclusively applied for the support 
of said libraries. 

5. "The Legislature shall take measures for the protection, 
improvement, or other disposition of such lands as have been or 
may hereafter be reserved or granted by the United States to this 
state for the support of a University, with such branches as the 
public convenience may hereafter demand for the promotion of 
literature, the arts and sciences, and as may be authorized by the 
terms of such grant; and it shall be the duty of the Legislature, as 
soon as may be, to provide effectual means for the improvement and 
permanent security of the funds of said University."! 

These sections are not elaborate, but they served as the 
foundation for a school system that was comprehensive 

1 These sections are quoted in the Reports of Superintendents of Public Instruction 
in various years. See, for instance, Report for 1832, page 18. 



112 Public Secondary Education 

and, likewise, in accord with many of the best theories 
and practices of the age anywhere. Moreover, the state 
was extremely fortunate in the choice of officers who were 
charged with the early administration of her educational 
policies and of her public schools. 

Acting on the authority imposed by the constitution and 
in harmony with the advice of Governor Mason, the 
legislature, in 1836, provided for putting into operation 
the new school ideals. Rev. John Pierce, a native of the 
East and a man of education, training, and broad expe- 
rience, was made Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
and was ordered to devise and to present to the next 
legislature a plan for a system of elementary schools, a 
scheme for a university having branches giving secondary 
instruction, and a policy for conserving the state school 
funds derived from the sale of public lands. No better 
choice of an educational administrator could have been 
made. The efficacy of education as a regenerating factor 
in modem life was a basal tenet in Mr. Pierce's creed. 
He had a profound conviction that a system of public 
schools, well articulated and conducted, would be the 
basis for all economic, social, and political progress of the 
new state. He had been a member of the Constitutional 
Convention and had served on the Committee of Educa- 
tion in that body. He, moreover, had been a close 
student of foreign school systems, especially the Prussian 
system as presented in Cousin's report. He was imbued 
with the belief that a strongly centralized state system 
was the ideal, and that it was especially needed in a new 
and changing territory. An educational authority like 
Prussia's could keep its hand upon every type of school 
and every phase of instruction, and could prevent waste, 
local jealousies, and superficiality. 

Fortune and the current of events, too, facilitated 



Putting the Constitutional Provisions into Effect 113 

Mr. Pierce's policies. The decline in education that had 
started in New England even before the close of the 
seventeenth century and had spread to all the other 
colonies, had reached its lowest point some ten or twelve 
years before this date, and the return influence and the 
inevitable reaction had begun. There now was an edu- 
cational advance on all sides. This was the decade of 
the second great awakening in American life; this was 
the Era of the American Revival of Learning. At this 
very time, Horace Mann was in the midst of his victori- 
ous fight for better schools and better school laws in 
Massachusetts. At this time, Henry Barnard was just 
at the threshold of his career in Connecticut. At this 
time, the democratic wave under Andrew Jackson was 
spreading over the land and carrying with it a demand 
for an equal opportunity for all individuals in politics, 
in business, and in education. America was at peace 
with the world. The Indians had in large nimibers 
been removed beyond the Mississippi and were no 
longer an immediate menace and danger. Western 
lands were cheap; the Federal debt had been entirely 
paid; and the central government had adopted the 
policy of distributing to the several states the surplus 
revenue of the treasury. The Erie Canal had been 
opened, a short time previously, and now connected the 
Great Lakes with the seaboard. Railroads were beginning 
to be laid ; public highways were opened ; canals were dug ; 
"pet banks" were distributed here and there throughout 
the new West. Visions of wealth, leisure, and happiness 
filled the minds of all, and optimism reigned supreme. 

To facilitate the realization of these dreams, schools 
were everywhere demanded. The Northwest now took 
on that "passion for learning" that ever since has con- 
stituted one of her most characteristic features. The new 

9 



114 Public Secondary Education 

State of Michigan was caught up by the rising spirit 
of hope and expectancy, and demanded, with her sister 
states, a system of education that should be commensurate 
with the new ideals and contributory to the democratic 
and universal aspirations. 

When the legislature reconvened in January, 1837, 
Superintendent Pierce made his report and offered his 
proposed plan. This document was a remarkable piece of 
educational wisdom. It provided for a system of schools 
extending from the rural district school to the university, 
and resembling in scope and articulation the plan that was 
proposed in the Law of 18 17. There were to be elemen- 
tary schools in every district and these were to be free and 
compulsory to all youth for a period of at least three 
months in the year. There was a recommendation for a 
minimum salary law for teachers and for a law requiring 
a regular course of professional training for them, together 
with state certifications of their qualifications. 

Mr. Pierce also outlined a policy for conserving the 
school funds arising from the sale of the public lands, and 
in addition made other advanced and wise suggestions 
v/hich however do not directly bear upon the present 
theme. Suffice it to say that the plan of instruction 
proposed at the time was in nearly perfect accord with 
vi'hat Mr. Mann was advocating at the same period for 
Massachusetts. Had Mr. Pierce's suggestions been 
put more fully into operation one cannot doubt but that 
the school system of Michigan would have been even 
better and stronger than it was. 

Still there were extenuating circumstances which 
should be taken into consideration in forming a judgment 
of the shortcomings of the legislature and the people. 
However clearly a theorist may have an image of the 
ideal, it is not always the part of practical wisdom to 



Putting the Constitutional Provisions into Effect 115 

attempt to attain to it at one effort. In this instance the 
legislature was doubtless wise in not making into man- 
datory law all of Mr. Pierce's recommendations. Indeed, 
time proved that much that was undertaken was not real- 
izable and had later to be abandoned. Nevertheless, the 
plan as outlined by Mr. Pierce constitutes the true con- 
crete beginnings of the state policy respecting education. 
The more important specific recommendations may be 
summarized thus:^ 

1. All school lands were to be sold and the proceeds to be invested 

according to the provisions of the law. 

2. The powers and duties of the Superintendent of Public In- 

struction v>7ere to be specifically defined. 

3. Provisions for the organization and administration of the 

elementary schools were made according to the following 

plan: 

(c) The school district was to be made the unit and was to 

have its own elective school officers — moderator, 

assessor, and director — whose duties and powers were 

specifically defined. 
(Jb) Township libraries were to be established and supported 

by means of 

(i) The surplus from fines. 

(2) The surplus from military exemptions. 

(3) A direct township tax of ten dollars annually. 

(c) Township boards of school inspectors were to be pro- 
vided, and their duties defined. 

{d) An exact plan for the distribution of the school funds 
was framed and the amount allotted to each district 
was made dependent on the school population. 

(e) A complete system of official reports from inferior 
officers to superior officers was outlined. 

(/) Local districts were given permissive power to levy an 
additional school tax. 

(g) Townships were required to raise annually by township 
tax a sum of money for school purposes equal to that 
contributed by the state. 

1 Senate Documents, 1838, pp. 15 ff. 



ii6 Public Secondary Education 

4. Provision was made for the establishment of academies or 

branches of the university to give secondary instruction. 

5. The university was organized. 

6. Provision was made for securing professional training of 

teachers and for state certification of them. 

7. A plan for a minumum salary law was proposed. 

The legislature accepted the report of Mr. Pierce and 
embodied his recommendations, almost in toto, into law. 
Free schools were not, however, provided at this time, 
nor was the Superintendent of Public Instruction given 
the authority that was essential to make his position one 
of real power and dignity.^ Neither was a minimum 
salary law enacted. 

The law of 1837 authorized the sale of the public lands, 
the work to be carried on under the direction of the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction. Here again Mr. 
Pierce rendered excellent service to the state. Not only 
was he an educator of high rank but he was an equally 
capable and efficient financier and business administrator 
Under his supervision the sales were made at auction and 
brought good prices. The law itself specified that no 
public land should be sold for less than eight dollars per 
acre. The actual selling price averaged about twelve 
dollars per acre. A small cash deposit was required 
of each purchaser and permission was given whereby the 
remainder of the obligation was to be made in annual 
installments. 

At first all parties seem to have been satisfied and 
pleased. Then came the financial panic of 1837, with 
its attendant complications, bankruptcies, and losses. 
Optimism gave place to pessimism. The decade had 
witnessed an era of the wildest of "wild-cat" banking and 

1 Mr. Pierce advised that power be granted him and his successors "to hear 
and decide all questions arising under the public school system." This would 
have made the superintendent an absolute supreme judge. The legislature denied 
the request. 



Putting the Constitutional Provisions into Effect 117 

of reckless speculation, and the inevitable crash had come. 
Purchasers of the school lands could not meet their 
obligations; prices of all kinds of real estate fell; and 
speculators and citizens turned to the government for 
advice and relief. Complaints poured in that the pur- 
chase price of the school lands had been too high, and 
petitions were made to the legislature for a "stay law" 
that would release buyers from their contracts. For some 
time the legislature dela^^ed action and matters stood 
in abeyance. Many purchasers deliberately abandoned 
their purchases, and thereby forfeited to the state the 
payments that had already been made. The land also 
reverted to the government and this served as a check and 
dam to further sales. 

Finally the pressure became too great and the legisla- 
ture yielded. Relief acts were passed, modifying the 
whole operation of previous laws and the administration 
that had gone on under them. Many purchasers of school 
lands were exempted in part or in whole from their 
contracts and their obligations. The prices of lands 
actually agreed upon and of which part payments had 
been made were reduced in amounts. To those who had 
made full settlements, reimbursements, through rebates, 
were made. The effect of these relief acts, besides throw- 
ing the whole administration into confusion, was a large 
financial loss to the state school fund. Up to Decem- 
ber 10, 1842, the sales of school lands had amounted to 
$711,404.85, but under the provisions of the relief act 
this amount was cut down to $359,809.41.^ There were 
other losses incident to bad management, inaccurate 
bookkeeping, and perhaps carelessness, so that not even 
this amount was actually realized. 

According to the report of the Commissioner of the 

1 Smith, History of Education in Michigan, p. i8. 



ii8 Public Secondary Education 

State Land Office in 1880, the total amount of school 
lands granted by the Federal government to the state 
of Michigan equaled 1,077,208.76 acres. At that date 
there were 426,860.39 acres still unsold. The average 
price per acre received by the state on lands sold up to 
that time had been approximately four dollars and one- 
half.^ Since 1880 the remaining lands have been disposed 
of at a figure considerably above this price. 

At first moneys obtained from the sales of these 
public lands were loaned to county governments and to 
individuals. That loaned to counties was secured by 
county bonds; that to individuals was guaranteed by a 
mortgage on the land. Nevertheless, for one reason 
or another, much of the money that was loaned to indi- 
viduals was lost. There are to this day standing on 
the records many uncanceled mortgages of the state 
against individuals, but no serious or successful efforts 
seem ever to have been made to recover the amounts 
involved. 

Later, in order to pay its own debts, the state borrowed 
all the school moneys itself, the whole amount thus 
becoming a permanent and perpetual loan to the common- 
wealth. To secure the payment of the interest on this 
loan the entire faith and credit of Michigan is pledged. 
The rate is seven per cent per annum. 

The state also assumed and guaranteed "the payment 
of the interest due from purchases of part-paid lands." 
This also bears seven per cent interest and is merged 
into one fund with the other moneys just mentioned. 
There is therefore a perpetual school fimd, loaned to the 
state and guaranteed by the state, v/hich will continue 
to draw interest, payable out of the state tax levy, so 
long as the state itself shall endure. This is the state's 

1 Op. cit., p. 18. 



Putting the Constitutional Provisions into Effect 119 

Primary School Fund. On April i, 1843, it amounted 
to $369,264.39.1 

In addition to the money obtained from the sale of 
public lands, other specific resources and taxes accrue to 
this fund from time to time, so that the amount never 
can be decreased, but on the contrary is constantly and 
forever being increased, and thus is yearly adding to 
the support of schools. The other items of this school 
fund are: 

1. The funds derived from the sale of lands that escheat to the 

state for want of heirs. 

2. One half of the moneys obtained from the sale 'of swamp land 

granted to the state by the Federal Government.^ 

The annual interest derived and distributed to the 
schools from the primary school funds is at pres- 
ent supplemented by moneys derived from four other 
sources. These are: 

1. Specific taxes received from corporations other than mining 

corporations operating in the Upper Peninsula. 

2. The one-mill tax on all assessable property in the state. 

3. Non-resident tuition fees, which go directly to the school 

attended, but which must be accounted for and reported 
to the state. 

4. A district tax or direct local tax determined by the local authori- 

ties. 

5. Moneys from miscellaneous resources. 

A financial statement taken from the Reports of the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction for 1907 and 1914^ 
reveals the present condition of funds for primary schools 
in the state, and furnishes an interesting commentary on 

1 Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction for 1852, p. 599. 

2 For this the state pays interest at the rate of five per cent rather than seven per 
cent. This fund is therefore called the State Primary School Five Per Cent Interest 
Fund. 

3 The Primary School Fund interest is distributed semi-annually to the various 
school districts in the state and is apportioned according to the school population 
of each district. The per capita apportionment in 1843 was 32 cents. In 1853 
it was S3 cents. It never got higher than this until after 1880. In 1906 the rate 
was S12; in 1907, $3; in 1908, $8.28; in 1913, $7.41. 



I20 



Public Secondary Education 



the development of this fund during the past seventy 
years. 



Source of Funds 


1906 


1913 


One-Mill Tax 


$ 1,092,688.64 

2,706,165.10 

110,495.58 

5.591,319-75 
739,606.07 


$ 1,192,215.14 

5.500,639.30 

301, 499. OS 


Primary School Interest Fund . . 
Non-resident Tuition 


Direct or District Tax 


q. 388,617. so 


Miscellaneous 


1.912,857.98 






Total net receipts 


$10,240,275.14 
1,060,380.37 
2,932,874.20 


$18,295,828.97 


Received from Loans 


3,456,879.32 


Balance from Preceding Year. . . 


3,687,871.91 


Total Resources 


$14,233,529.71 


$25,440,580.20 







It must be kept in mind that these figures represent 
the yearly resources of the primary schools only. They 
do not include the university funds, the normal school 
funds, the agricultural school funds, or the funds for 
other educational institutions above the high school. 
They do include moneys available for high schools. 

Inasmuch as the present high schools of Michigan are 
an outgrowth of the elementary schools and are now 
popularly and legally regarded as an integral part of the 
primary or common-school system, we shall have to 
consider the rise and development of this type of schools 
later. Until considerably after 1837, however, secondary 
education was not conceived to be thus intimately 
related and organically connected with elementary 
education, and provision was made for it in two distinct 
types of schools. One class of these institutions, called 
Branches of the University, was public, and was sup- 
ported and controlled chiefly by the state. The other 
was private or denominational and was only in a general 
and indirect way under the authority and supervision 
of the state. 



Putting the Constitutional Provisions into Effect 121 

The ideal of Mr. Pierce was to make a system of educa- 
tion so complete and so efficient that there would be no 
excuse for private and denominational schools for secular 
instruction, and no cause for a young man or woman to 
seek an education in other states of the Union, or in 
non-state schools within Michigan. Mr. Pierce was not 
an irreligious man ^ nor did he wish to oppose the spread 
of church influences. He had, however, in other states 
seen the pernicious effects of an array of weak, struggling, 
ill-equipped little denominational schools, academies, 
and colleges, and had noted the cheapening effect they 
had had upon high standards of scholarship and attain- 
ments. He resolved, therefore, so far as possible, to 
prevent their implanting in Michigan, and exerted his 
influence, openly and aggressively, to this end. 

In the report and recommendations to the legislature in 
1836, Mr. Pierce called the attention of that body to the 
seriousness of "granting to private associations acts of 
incorporation with imiversity powers." He referred to 
the policy of New York, which refused to charter a 
private or denominational school that did not possess 
appropriate buildings valued at not less than twenty- 
five thousand dollars and at the same time a current fund 
of at least one hundred thousand dollars, "secured in 
double the amount, for the use of the institution, and 
reserving to the state the right of visitation." 

Even the precautions taken in New York were, to 
Mr. Pierce, not sufficient safeguards, and in his first report 
he added this significant sentence: "It is respectfully 
suggested to the consideration of the legislature whether 
it will be desirable (at all) to incorporate such a number 
of private associations for purposes of education as will 

1 It will be recalled that he himself was a Christian minister, and after relinquish- 
ing the office of superintendent in 1841, he returned to the work of the church. 



122 Public Secondary Education 

have the effect to draw off the attention and interest of 
any considerable portions of the public from the institu- 
tions founded by the state." "The object of the rule is," 
he urged, "to prevent the multiplication of such institu- 
tions without any fair prospect of permanent usefulness. " 

In 1838, when the school laws were being revised by 
the legislature, Mr. Pierce again returned to the attack 
and expressed himself as follows: "When this decision 
is finally made," he said, "it will not require the inspira- 
tion of a prophet to determine whether the state shall 
eventually assume the first rank in the Republic of 
Letters, by founding and rearing up an institution of 
noble stature and just proportions, worthy alike of the 
state and of learning, and equally worthy the name of 
university, or whether the state shall ultimately sink 
to a low level in the world of knowledge, having institu- 
tions under the imposing name of colleges, scattered 
through the length and breadth of the land, without 
funds, without cabinets, without apparatus, without 
libraries, without talents, without character and without 
the ability of ever maintaining them. If one is granted, 
others must be, and there is no limit. If one village 
obtains a charter for a college, all others must have the 
same favor. In porportion as they increase in numbers, 
just in that proportion will be their decrease of power 
to be useful."^ 

The struggle in the legislature was long and more or 
less bitter. Mr. Pierce naturally was looked upon by 
many sectarians as an enemy of religion and a menace to 
the true development of the state. Despite his declara- 
tions denying the false charges he became, in the eyes of 
many, a man marked for speedy retirement from office. 

1 Quoted in Superintendent's Report for 1852, p. 38. Also found in Senate Docu- 
ments, 1839, pp. 225 ff. 



Putting the Constitutional Provisions into Effect 123 

The question came to a head in 1839, when a petition 
was presented to the legislature praying for the incorpora- 
tion of the "Trustees of Michigan College." After a long 
and earnest discussion the aict of incorporation was 
passed, and Michigan thus, by precedent, bound herself 
to the policy of encouraging schools not supported or 
entirely controlled by the state. The decision was 
doubtless a wise one. 

There is much force in the arguments used by Mr. 
Pierce against the indiscriminate granting of charters to 
any and all applicants who wish to set up a school. 
Especially wotdd it be derogatory to public interest to 
allow such institutions, once established, to offer what- 
ever instruction they might please, without supervision 
of scope, standard, and efficiency of the work undertaken. 
Ludicrous indeed is the situation found in some states 
even to-day, in which second- and third-class institutions 
are permitted to grant academic degrees for work that is 
not equal to that done in many a good high school.^ 

On the other hand, absolutely to prohibit by legal 
enactment all intelligent experimenting by private 
individuals, or to discourage educational institutions, 
which by the very nature of their work and the limited 
circle to which they appeal cannot advantageously be 
provided by the public, would be to injure and disable and 
weaken the state much more than the presence of a few 
inferior and unnecessary schools could do. To illustrate 
the unwisdom of a complete prohibition of private 
initiative in education one has only to recall the long 
period and process of private tutelage that had first to be 
undergone by the kindergartens, manual training schools, 

1 Propriety and courtesy prevent giving the names of specific institutions. 
There are such institutions in nearly all parts of the Union, as all pretty well know. 
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois have a number of such pretentious schools, and possibly 
Michigan is not wholly without them. 



124 Public Secondary Education 

commercial schools, industrial schools, and other institu- 
tions of similar kinds before they were incorporated into 
the public-school system. Mr. Pierce's recommendations 
were worthy of consideration as a check to hasty and 
ill-timed legislative action, but as a formulation of 
principles for an imvarying and permanent poHcy they 
were dangerous. 

With the incorporation of Michigan College the way 
was open for other educational ventures, and from this 
date academies, seminaries, and colleges gradually found 
recognition in the Michigan school system. Nevertheless, 
though the threatened legal obstruction was removed, 
other circumstances existed which, temporarily, checked 
any considerable growth of private schools, nor was the 
number ever large in Michigan in comparison with the 
numbers found in many other states. After 1846, and 
before the public high school appeared prominently, 
there was an era of considerable activity in schools of 
these kinds. We shall recur to this movement later. 

In the meantime true public secondary education was 
being given in the "branches" of the university. A 
consideration of these shall constitute the theme of the 
next chapter. 



CHAPTER VI 
Branches of the University 

IT WILL be recalled that the territorial act of 1817 
provided that a series of secondary branch schools 
should be established under the authority of the university. 
By the act of 182 1 the same idea was reemphasized. The 
state constitution of 1835 expressly spoke of "branches" 
in connection with the university, and obviously implied 
that schools of secondary grade should be provided and 
should be made dependent on that institution. Super- 
intendent Pierce in his first report outlined a scheme for 
such schools, and when the law creating the present 
imiversity was approved, March 18, 1837, the idea was 
incorporated in the act. 

The control of the imiversity was placed in the hands of 
twelve regents appointed by the governor, together with 
other ex officio members. These were the governor of 
the state, the lieutenant-governor, the justices of the 
Supreme Court of Michigan, the chancellor of the univer- 
sity, and the chancellor of the state. Among other duties 
this board was required, in cooperation with the Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction, to establish branches 
of the university in various parts of the state, and to 
prescribe rules and regulations for their administration. 

The first report of Mr. Pierce recommended that any 
county which possessed a sufficient population and which 
should agree to furnish a school site and buildings should 
be entitled to a branch. To secure local interest and to 
provide for local administration a board of eleven persons 
was to be required. Six of these were to be appointed 

125 



126 Ptiblic Secondary Education 

by the Coiinty Board of Supervisors, one by the State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the other four 
members v/ere to be ex officio the county judge of probate, 
two associate county judges, and the county clerk. This 
local board of trustees was to have the general control 
of the school, to appoint teachers, and to make an annual 
report to a County Board of Visitors. This last board 
was to consist of three members, — two appointed by the 
State Superintendent of PubHc Instruction and one by 
the County Board of Supervisors.^ The duties of the 
Board of Visitors were to visit the branch annually, to 
examine its work and administration, and to report to 
the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

The support of the branch was to come in part from 
appropriations made by the regents from the imiversity 
fund ; a like amoimt collected in the county by means of a 
direct coimty tax ; and tuitions. In addition every county 
that complied with the law was to have a bonus from the 
state of five hundred dollars for books and apparatus.^ 

Every branch was to contain three departments: the 
Classical, the English, and the Normal Training. The 
tuition in the Normal Department was to be free to all 
who would pledge themselves to complete the course of 
three years and then teach in the schools of the state four 
years longer. The tuition in the English Department was 
not to exceed ten dollars a year, and in the Classical, 
twelve dollars. In the Normal or Teachers' Department 
the following studies were recommended: "The English 
language; writing and drawing; arithmetic, mental and 
written, and bookkeeping; geography and general history 
combined, and history of the United States; geometry, 

1 In Michigan each civil township elects annually one supervisor who assesses 
property for taxes, and acts as the chief executive officer of the township. The 
aggregate body of township supervisors in the county constitute ex officio the 
County Board of Supervisors. 

2 Smith, History of Education in Michigan, pp. 39 #• 



Branches of the University 127 

trigonometry, mensuration and surveying ; natural philos- 
ophy and elements of astronomy; geology and chemistry; 
constitution of the United States and the laws and 
duties of public officers; principles of teaching; rhetoric; 
algebra; the nature of man as a physical, intellectual, 
and moral being, and his relations."^ 

The act as finally passed contained the essential features 
of this recommendation, but omitted many of the details. 
It placed more power and discretion in the hands of the 
regents. The county was not necessarily to be the basis 
for organization, but branches were to be opened by the 
regents (with the superintendent cooperating) in such 
places as the legislature might authorize. They were to 
be essentially boys' schools, and rules and regulations 
were to be prescribed by the regents. 

The law required that in at least one branch an agri- 
cultural department should be established having "Com- 
petent instructors in the theory of agriculture, including 
vegetable physiology and agricultural chemistry, and 
experimental and practical farming and agriculture." ^ 

Each branch was to have, as recommended, a normal 
school for the training of primary-school teachers, and 
such other departments as the regents deemed necessary. 

In connection with each branch there was also to be, 
as soon as suitable buildings could be secured, "an 
institution for the education of females."^ 

When a branch was actually established the law provided 
that there should be "apportioned to each such simis for 
the support of its professors and teachers, and also such 
other sums for the purchase of books and apparatus, as the 
state of the University fund shall warrant and allow." ^ 

1 Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1852, p. 26. 

2 Revised Statutes of Michigan, 1838, p. 237, sec. 21. 

3 Ibid., sec. 20. 

4 Ibid., sec. 22. 



128 Public Secondary Education 

At the same session, on March 20, 1837, an act was 
passed locating the university at Ann Arbor. The law 
specified that the university should consist of three 
departments : (i) The Department of Literature, Science, 
and the Arts; (2) The Department of Law; and (3) The 
Department of Medicine. 

The first recommendations made by the superintendent 
provided that in the department of literature, science, 
and the arts "there should ultimately be established the 
following professorships: ancient languages, modem lan- 
guages, philosophy of history and logic, philosophy of 
the human mind, moral philosophy, theology, political 
economy, mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, 
geology and mineralogy, botany and zoology, fine arts, 
and civil engineering and drawing. 

The law permitted the establishment of most of these 
chairs. But theology, for obvious reasons, was excluded. 

The regents at their first meeting, held July 5, 1837, 
decided not to attempt to open the university at once, 
but to give their first attention to the establishment of 
branches, which, in the course of four years, it was 
expected, would have prepared a class ready for entrance 
to the main university. To this end they voted to open 
eight such schools of secondary grade and to appropriate 
eight thousand dollars to aid the payment of teachers in 
them. Before the first of January, 1839, five such 
branches were organized and put into actual operation. 
These were located at Pontiac, Monroe, Kalamazoo, 
Detroit, and Niles.^ 

1 The dates on which the principal instructors were appointed by the regents, 
and on which the schools may justly be said to have been founded, were as follows: 
Pontiac, Sept. is, 1837; Monroe, Feb. 19, 1838; Kalamazoo, May i, 1838; Detroit, 
May 20, 1838; and Niles, Sept. 14, 1838. (See "Report of Regents" in Michigan 
Documents of the House, 1839.) The branch at Detroit was looked upon by many 
as being the superior branch and as constituting, temporarily, the main university. 
When the real university was opened in Ann Arbor, and the appropriations to the 
branches reduced, the Detroit branch suspended. 



Branches of the University 129 

The number of pupils enrolled at the time was 161, 
distributed as follows: Pontiac, 27; Monroe, 63; Kala- 
mazoo, 22; Detroit, 40; Niles, 9. Of these, ten were 
expected to be qualified in September, 1839, for 
teachers of the common schools, and six were expected 
to be ready for admission to the tmiversity. "In 1840," 
continues the regents' report, "thirty students will be 
ready to enter the freshman or perhaps sophomore classes 
in the university. In 1841, thirty-five will be ready and 
in 1842 forty. The total students whose parents design 
them for a Hberal education number loi, with ten reported 
or destined for teachers, and 50 whose future ambitions 
were not revealed." Needless, perhaps, to say, all these 
were boys. No "female institution" had in 1838 yet been 
added to any school, nor was the university, as conceived 
at this time, intended for any but the male sex. The ad- 
mission of girls to the university did not begin imtil 1870. 

The attitude of the local committees toward the 
branches was gratifying indeed. It was the policy of 
the regents to throw much of the burden of the support 
of these schools upon the local communities. 

These furnished the buildings and the equipment and 
the regents paid the salaries. All fees or tuitions, how- 
ever, went to the university and not to the local author- 
ities. Under these conditions towns seemed to vie with 
each other in securing recognition and in having a branch 
of the university set up in their midst. In 1839 schools 
had been opened at White Pigeon and Tecumseh, though 
the one at Kalamazoo was temporarily discontinued. 
In this year there were employed by the university six 
teachers who acted as principals of the branches, and six 
assistants or tutors. Two of the latter were women. The 
average number of pupils imder instruction was 222.^ 

1 Regents ' Report, 1839, Joint Documents of Michigan, 1840. 

10 



130 Public Secondary Education 

"Wherever a branch has been established," said the 
regents, "it has not only received the decided approbation 
and support of the inhabitants in its immediate vicinity, 
but has continued regularly to increase in nimiber of 
students from time to time." ^ 

The Report of 1840 was equally cheerful and optimistic. 
"A steady increase of number has taken place in the 
respective terms for the year," reads one of its sentences. 
The number of teachers and professors then employed 
numbered 20, while the average attendance was 236 
students. "Female institutions" or departments were 
opened in four of the branches during this year. These 
were at Monroe, White Pigeon, Niles, and Tecimiseh.^ 

Still, there is in the Report an inkling of doubts and 
fears. The regents refer to the work of the Committee 
on Branches as having "encountered an arduous task 
in the management of the correspondence, the selection 
of principals, and the pecuniary questions which required 
decision and adjustment." There is also an echo of the 
religious quarrels' and criticisms, since the regents took 
care publicly to announce that "of the seven branches 
established five are imder the direction of clergymen and 
two of laymen of various religious denominations." Ever 
since Mr. Pierce's adverse recommendations respecting 
the easy incorporation of denominational schools a large 
constituency in the state had viewed every move toward 
public education as a covert attack upon religion and re- 
ligious teaching. Even this early the university regents 
had to confront the charge that they were seeking to estab- 
lish and perpetuate Godless schools. There can be little 
doubt that their public avowal of their choice of clergymen 
as principals was made to allay adverse public opinion. 

1 Report of Regents in Slate Documents of House of Representatives for iSjg. 

2 Regents' reports for 1840, in Joint Documeyils, 1841, pp. 399 #■ 



Branches of the University 131 

Meanwhile the erection of the buildings constituting the 
main body of the University had been going on at Ann 
Arbor. The nucleus of a library and the beginnings of 
some necessary apparatus had already been made, and 
the university proper was ready to open its doors. This 
was in 1841.^ It was evident, however, to the Board 
of Regents that the scant imiversity funds — made 
scantier by the legislative relief and rebate acts of that 
and the previous year — would not be sufficient to carry 
on the growing work of the branches and at the same 
time the work in the central college, and to bestow upon 
both the proper and necessary attention. The value of the 
branches in stimulating public interest in education had 
been immeasurable. There was a demand on all sides 
not only that those already in operation should be con- 
tinued but that others should speedily be opened. The 
regents themselves shared these views, as did both the 
retiring Superintendent of Public Instruction, Mr. Pierce, 
and his successor, Mr. Franklin Sawyer. Still, good 
judgment dictated that if the imiversity proper was ever 
to command the equal and whole-hearted support of 
the people of the state that the other educational institu- 
tions did, its opening ought not be deferred longer. 
Every day that the branches increased in strength and 
popularity the difficulties of opening the university 
increased. Every day that the denominational influences 
strengthened, the popular interest in a complete system of 
secular public education diminished. It seemed to the 

1 When the university opened there were six students admitted to the freshman 
class, and one to the sophomore. The preparatory department, or Ann Arbor 
branch, was opened at the same time with twenty-five students enrolled. _ (Report 
of the Faculty in Joint Documenls, 1S42, p. 389.) Candidates for admission to the 
university at this time were examined in arithmetic, the elements of algebra, 
geography, Cicero's orations, Sallust, Vergil, Jacob's Creek Reader, the Four 
Gospels, and Latin and Greek prosody. (Report of Executive Committee of Re- 
gents, 1841, in Joint Documents, 1842, p. 388.) With the exception of a term's 
work in rhetoric, grammar, and natural history, the whole freshman course was 
made up of Latin, Greek, and mathematics. In 1842 the enrollment in the uni- 
versity was twenty-five. (.Joint Documents, 1843, p. 371.) 



132 Public Secondary Education 

regents that the time was then or never; that, if the 
opening were deferred, the university never would be able 
to gain the prestige and power that was hoped and prom- 
ised; and that imless the articulation were made then, 
the university never could become the real integral part 
of the public-school system that had been planned. 

With these reflections to guide them the regents decided 
definitely to delay no longer but to open the tmiversity 
that year.^ To do this it was voted to curtail the expendi- 
tures and contributions for the branches. Instead of 
paying the teachers' salaries and receiving in their treasury 
the income from tuitions, they determined to appropriate 
the gross sum. of five hundred dollars to each principal, 
and tc allow him to receive the tuitions for himself. Out 
of these fimds he was expected to find his own salary, 
to pay his own assistant teachers, and to meet the other 
current expenses of the school. This action caused the 
branches at Pontiac, Monroe, and Niles to suspend at 
once. The others continued their work and were more 
or less successful.^ 

The following year, 1842, saw another reduction in the 
tmiversity appropriations. Then, in addition to the 
tuition fees, only two hundred dollars were allowed each 
branch. There was dissatisfaction and complaint in 
many quarters. The principals at White Pigeon and 
Tecumseh resigned, but others were appointed in their 
stead and the work went on. The branches now num- 
bered five. These were Detroit, Kalamazoo, Tecumseh, 
White Pigeon, and Ann Arbor. The total enrollment 
this year was 210, of whom 113 were in the Classical or 
College Preparatory Department.' 

1 The exact date of the opening of the literary department was Sept. 20, 1841. 

2 The branches left were those at Detroit, Kalamazoo, Tecumseh, White Pigeon, 
and Ann Arbor. These had an aggregate enrollment of "147 males and 100 
females." (Report of Committee on Branches, JoiKt Documents, 1842, p. 391.) 

3 Joint Documents, 1843, p. 387. 



Branches of the University 133 

The same five institutions existed in 1843, but the 
enrollment was reduced to 174, with no in the Classical 
Course. Late in the year a new branch was opened at 
Romeo. ^ 

In 1844 the branches numbered six, with the whole 
ntmiber of students increased to 298. Among these were 
72 women.^ 

The next year, 1845, the regents reported about 300 
students in the branches, and seemed hopeful that the 
dark days were nearly over.^ 

In 1846 reports were received from the branches at 
White Pigeon, Kalamazoo, Tecumseh, and Romeo, which 
collectively showed an enrollment of 287 students. Of 
these 126 were women, and 112 were in the classical 
departments. "No reports," said the Committee on 
Branches, "have been received from either the Pontiac, 
Niles, or Monroe branch."^ This statement implies 
that there were, counting the preparatory school at 
Ann Arbor, eight branches existing at this date, the 
Detroit branch being the only one not in operation. 

With the opening of the schools in the fall of 1846 evil 
days befell. Then only four branches resumed operations. 
During this school year the Committee on Branches 
recommended that no more imiversity aid should be 
extended to these schools, and the regents concurred 
in the recommendation. The Committee on Branches 
was therefore dismissed,^ and no further reports of the 
regents are to be found on the subject. 

Early in 1847, therefore, the regents fully abandoned all 
attempts to support the two types of schools — secondary 

1 Report of Committee on Branches, Joint Documents, 1843. 
_ 2 Ibid., for 1844, p. 54. The schools this year were at Kalamazoo, White 
Pigeon, Tecumseh, Romeo, Monroe, and Ann Arbor. The Monroe branch was 
revived this year, after a suspension of two years. 

3 Joint Documents, 1845, No. S, p. 150, 

4 Ibid., 1847. p. 58. 

5 Ibid., 1848, No. S. 



134 Public Secondary Education 

and higher — and gave their whole attention to the 
latter. After this date no further appropriation was 
made to any branch/ though some branches continued to 
struggle along on their own resources. After this date, 
too, no reports seem to have been made by any branch 
save that at Romeo. This school continued to thrive 
to a greater or less degree for two or three years. Its last 
report was made in 185 1. At that time the Romeo 
branch alone had 201 students, of whom 43 were pursuing 
classical studies, 19 French, and 127 the higher mathe- 
matics and branches of higher English education.^ 

Thus, after an attempt extending over a period of ten 
years of actual effort and thirty years of theoretical 
agitation and legal authorization, and after more than 
thirty thousand dollars had been expended in trying to 
sustain it, the policy of conducting a university with 
dependent branches was abandoned, never to be revived.^ 

Each branch, as we have seen, was to have a Classical, 
an English, and a Normal-Training Department, and in 
at least one branch there was to be a Department of 
Agriculture. So far as the records disclose, this last 
department never was established. The other depart- 
ments were common to each school. 

Admission to any branch was secured by merely pass- 
ing a preparatory or entrance examination. Likewise, 
too, graduates of the classical departments of these 
schools, though prepared specifically for the univer- 
sity, were subjected to an entrance examination when 
they came up for admission to Ann Arbor. The first 

1 For the sake of testing the constitutionality of the law before the Supreme 
Court an appropriation of ten dollars was later made to the Romeo branch, and 
the rest withheld. 

2 Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1851, p. 63. 

3 All told, therefore, eight such branches had been opened, or, if the preparatory 
school of Ann Arbor be regarded as a branch, nine had been established. Quasi- 
branches were also located at Mackinaw, Jackson, Utica, Ypsilanti, and Coldwater, 
but no appropriations were made by the regents for their support. 



Branches of the University 135 

announcement^ of the regents on the subject describes the 
terms and conditions of entrance thus: "Applicants for 
admission (to the university proper) must adduce satis- 
factory evidence of good moral character, and sustain an 
examination in geography, arithmetic, the elements of Al- 
gebra, the grammar of the English, Latin, and Greek lan- 
guages, the exercises and reader of Andrews, Cornelius 
Nepos, Vita Washingtonii, Sallust, Cicero's Orations, 
Jacob's Greek Reader and the evangelists."^ 

These admission requirements suggest the nature of 
the Classical Course in the branches. Unfortunately no 
entire program of studies of the work given in these 
early schools is at hand. In 185 1, after the branches 
had been abandoned by the regents, the Romeo branch 
did make a rather elaborate report directly to the Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction. This report is extant. 
This branch, it will be recalled, was the latest to be 
organized, and doubtless it was built on stronger local 
support than were some of the others. The school was 
perpetuated beyond 1847, i^ the faith, apparently, that 
the regents would soon return to their earlier policy of 
rendering university aid. At least the university grant of 
ten dollars, and the amicable agreement to carry the 
question of legal relationship before the Supreme Court, 
indicate that all hope of organic affiliation with the 
imiversity was not at that time abandoned. 

Consequently, considering all the circumstances, one 
may fairly infer that this branch represented the university 
schools at their strongest and best. 

The Report in question, signed by President D. C. 
Walker, is dated Romeo, Macomb County, Jan. 20, 185 1, 
and contains a statement of the conditions of the 

1 Made in 1844. 

2 McLaughlin, History of Higher Education in Michigan, p. 41; or see catalogue 
for 1843-44. 



136 Public Secondary Edtication 

school for the previous year. The number of students in 
attendance was given as 201. Of this number 43 pursued 
the study of the Latin or Greek languages or both; 19 the 
French language; and 127 the higher mathematics, 
together with the higher branches of an education."^ 
Apparently at this date the branch was not only giving 
studies that prepared for admission to the university 
but in addition was regularly offering the equivalent of 
the first year's work in the university itself, for we 
read: "12 of the classical students pursued the studies 
of the freshman year in college, and four have entered 
college — one. Brown University; one, Williams' College; 
and two our university; all entered the sophom^ore 
class." 2 

At this time there were five members of the corps of 
teachers. These were Charles H. Palmer, A.M., principal 
and instructor in mathematics, chemistry, and natural 
philosophy; Charles C. Torrey, A.B., instructor in ancient 
languages, rhetoric, and moral philosophy; Mrs. B. A. 
Palmer, principal of the female department and instructor 
in French, botany, and history; Miss Sarah J. Gillett, 
instructor in physiology and natural history; and George 
A. Hoyt, instructor in music, vocal and instrumental. 

These items reveal what was apparently the whole 
program of studies and the scope of the instruction. 
One, can infer from it, too, that the size of certain classes 
must have been relatively large, each teacher having an 
average of forty pupils. 

The academic year was divided into three terms of 
fifteen weeks each. These began respectively, in 185 1, 
on April i, August 19, and December 9. Tuition was 
charged as follows: 

1 Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1851, p. 61. 

2 Ibid., p. 63. 



Branches of the University 137 

Elementary branches, per term of 15 weeks $ 3.00 

Common English branches, per term of 15 weeks 4.00 

Higher English branches, per term of 15 weeks 5.00 

Latin, Greek, and French, per term of 15 weeks 6.00 

Instruction on the piano, per term of 15 weeks 1 0.00 

The president called particular attention, also, to the 
school apparatus the institution possessed. In addition 
to a "cabinet of minerals" there was "extensive chemical, 
philosophical, and astronomical apparatus costing more 
than $500." "The telescope," continues the report, 
"is a fine achromatic, capable of showing clearly the 
moons and belts of Jupiter, and the rings of Saturn. 
This apparatus has been selected with great care, and 
is considered one of the most complete in the West."^ 

These sentences show that laboratory demonstrations, 
if not individual experimentations, formed a part of the 
instruction at the time. They also reveal the great 
interest that was taken in astronomy sixty years ago. 

The president laments the fact that meteorology is not 
given greater attention by the regents or by the state 
legislature. "Accurate meteorological tables," said he, 
"kept at different points would do much to correct an 
erroneous impression in reference to the climate of the 
state, which its latitude is calculated to produce. On 
account of its proximity to the great lakes the climate is 
much milder than is generally supposed; and, no doubt, 
these observations will show that the mean temperature 
of the southern half of this state is higher than that of 
the interior of Ohio. The meteorology of the region 
bordering on the great lakes would possess high scientific 
value and it would at the same time contribute greatly 
to show the congeniality of the climate to the most 
valuable agricultural products of the country, as well as 
to promote the safe navigation of the lakes, that add 

1 Report, pp. 64, 66. 



138 Public Secondary Education 

so much to the commercial importance of the State."* 
Evidently the early reports and traditions respecting 
the state had not yet wholly lost their subversive effects, 
and there was still need of correcting the false impressions 
before the world. The suggestions also indicate that the 
study of science in its various phases had already gained a 
firm foothold in the schools, even in schools whose prime 
function was to prepare youths for admission to colleges 
that still emphasized classical culture. 

The Report further states that "during the Fall term 
particular attention is given to a class of young ladies and 
gentlemen desirous of qualifying themselves for teaching. 
This class is reviewed in all studies usually pursued in 
primary schools. Frequent lectures are given upon sub- 
jects connected with their profession and no pains are 
spared to enable them to become able and efficient 
instructors. Those who are found qualified are, if desired, 
furnished with schools. The nimiber of students con- 
nected with this department was 57; who, during some 
part of the year, were engaged in teaching common 
schools. . . . The directors of school districts can 
be supplied with teachers of any desired acquirements, by 
addressing, early (by the middle of October), the principal, 
stating the required qualifications, compensation, etc."^ 
Whether other branches were greatly dissimilar to this, 
the available records do not disclose. Here, at least, is 
found a detached department of pedagogical instruction, 
the like of which was not introduced into the state in a 
special normal school until the year previous,^ and was 
not taken up in the university imtil 1879. No one claims 
of course that "frequent lectures — given upon subjects 
connected with their professions" constituted much of a 

1 Report, p. 51- 

2 Ibid., pp. 64, 66. 

3 The law establishing the normal school at Ypsilanti was passed in 1849. 



Branches of the University 139 

teachers' training college, but they did serve as a beginning 
and showed the trend of public educational sentiment in 
the state. 

The paragraph quoted also reveals another interesting 
practice, which since that time has grown to large dimen- 
sions in connection with the administration of the imi- 
versity. The Romeo branch had the beginnings of a 
Teachers' Appointment Committee, and sought, so far as 
possible, to secure teaching positions for its students. 
That the fifty-seven students mentioned in the report all 
received their positions through the direct efforts of the 
principal may well be doubted, but a published statement 
of the policy of the school in this respect must have 
had considerable influence in attracting other students 
to the doors of the institution. 

The Report briefly states that "connected with the 
institution, in a separate room, is a female department. 
The pupils of this room are under the immediate care 
of an experienced instructress, but recite to the other 
teachers when the studies are such as to require it." 
Here, then, is coeducation with a difference. The 
female department which started as an "annex" to the 
boys' school had, here at least, become sufficiently ac- 
climated and correlated to permit the two sexes to meet 
together in the same recitations; for assembly and study 
they still were seated in separate rooms. Yet when we 
recall that girls were not admitted to the imiversity until 
twenty years later than this, we need be less surprised 
than pleased that the branches were at this time according 
them the courtesies, privileges, and rights which they were.^ 

Finally, President Walker announced the fact that a 
flourishing literary society existed in the Romeo branch 

1 The regents by resolution first made clear their policy of admitting women 
to all departments of the university at their meeting of Jan. 20, 1870. (See Smith, 
op. cit., p. 74.) 



I40 Public Secondary Education 

whose members met regularly once a week for "purposes 
of extemporaneous debate." "Essays and addresses are 
occasionally delivered before the society," said he, "and 
all proceedings are conducted in a manner calculated to 
promote the improvement of its members." 

This kind of student activity, quasi-academic and quasi- 
recreative as it was, was characteristic of the academy 
and college in all parts of the land at the time. Indeed, 
it seems to have been nearly the sole diversion that was 
allowed with the hearty approval of the faculties. The 
more or less stem religious spirit that dominated most 
schools of the period precluded many amusements which 
to-day are generally regarded as either negatively harmless 
or else positively beneficial, while the reign of athletics 
had not yet been inaugurated. The literary society of 
the academy, the university branch, and the college was 
but a modified form of the rural spelling school and 
lyceum. All served their generation well. 

One can only regret that complete records that could 
reveal the other characteristics and internal organization 
and workings of these early branches are lacking. It is 
certain they served a helpful purpose in stimulating an 
interest in secondary education and a university training, 
and they surely brought the schools of both types into 
prominence and into a close relation with the body of 
citizens of the state. Still, the branches served directly 
only a relatively small number of people, and filled 
a social need that, by many, was considered not propor- 
tionate to the efforts put forth. "Notwithstanding the 
pains taken to adapt these institutions to the public 
exigencies," said Dr. Pitcher in a memorial addressed to 
posterity and incorporated in the report of the regents for 
1852 (a more extended quotation from which is attached 
at the end of this chapter), "so that their legitimate 



Branches of the University 141 

function could be performed without infringing upon 
another portion of the educational system, they soon 
began to decline in popular estimation, because they 
were not able at the same time to perform the fimctions 
of a common school as well as those of a branch of the 
university. A feeling of jealousy was awakened in the 
minds of those whose children were excluded from them 
from want either of age or qualifications. Consequently 
they were soon regarded as places for the education of 
the (so-called) aristocracy of the state, and the University 
through the influences of the branches began to be spoken 
of as enemy to popular education."^ 

Since the prime purpose of the branches was to prepare 
a body of students for the university, a consideration of 
the work done in that institution at the time may here 
be in place. 

It has been noted in earlier pages of this sketch that the 
university, though organized on paper as early as 18 17 and 
reorganized in 182 1 and in 1837, did not really come into 
existence and open its doors for the admission of pupils 
until 1 84 1. While the branches were preparing a body 
of students for admission, the authorities at Ann Arbor 
were preparing buildings, apparatus, and a faculty to 
receive them. In 1839, Dr. Asa Gray was chosen as the 
first professor and was given the chair of botany and 
zoology. Since the buildings were not ready, and Dr. 
Gray desired to visit Europe anyway, he was given leave 
of absence, and the sum of five thousand dollars was placed 
at his disposal with which to purchase books for the new 
university library and needed apparatus for classroom 
demonstrations.^ The following year Dr. Houghton was 
appointed professor of geology and mineralogy.^ The 

1 Dr. Zina Pitcher's "Memorial" in the report of the regents contained in the 
Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1852, p. 3IS. 

2 Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1852, p. 49- 

3 Ibid,, p. 52. 



142 



Public Secondary Education 



next year two other professors were added/ so that when 
the xmiversity opened for work on September 20, 1 841, it 
had a staff of four teachers. The students this year 
numbered seven. ^ The first catalogue of the university 
was published in 1844. At that time the faculty num- 
bered three professors, one tutor, one assistant in science, 
and one visiting lectiu^er. The number of students had 
increased to fifty-three. The program of studies offered 
at this time was as follows: 
Program of Studies in the University of Michigan in 18433 



< 




LANGUAGE AND 
LITERATURE 


MATHEMATICS AND 
PHYSICS 


INTELLECTUAL AND 
MORAL SCIENCE 


I 


I 

2 

3 


Folsom's Livy, Xeno- 
phon's Cyropaedia 
and A nabasis 

Livy finished, Horace, 
Thucydides, Herodo- 
tus, Roman Antiqui- 
ties 

Horace finished, 
Homer's Odyssey 


Bourdon's Algebra 

Algebra, Legen- 
dre's Geometry, 
Botany 

Geometry, Men- 
suration, Appli- 
cation of Algebra 
to Geometry 




2 


I 
2 
3 


Cicero's de Senectute 
and de Amicitia , 
Lysias, Isocrates, 
Demosthenes 

Cicero's de Oratore, 
Greek tragedy, Gre- 
cian Antiquities, 
Newcomb's Rhetoric 

Tacitus' Vita Agrico- 
lae and Cermanii, 
Greek tragedy 


Plane and Spher- 
ical Trigonome- 
try 

Davies' Descrip- 
tive and Analyti- 
cal Geometry 

Analytic Geome- 
try, Bridge's 
Co7iic Sections 


Logic 



1 Mr. George Williams was made professor of mathematics and Rev. Joseph 
Whiting, professor of Latin and Greek. See Report, p. 83. 

2 Faculty Report in Joint Documents, 1842, p. 389. 

3 Joint Documents, 1852, p. 388. 



Branches of the University 



143 



> 


u 

H 


LANGUAGE AND 
LITERATURE 


MATHEMATICS AND 
PHYSICS 


INTELLECTUAL AND 
MORAL SCIENCE 


3 


I 
2 

3 


Cicero's de Officiis, 
Greek poetry 

Terence, Greek poetry, 
General grammar 

Whiteley's Rhetoric 


Olmstead's Natu- 
ral Philosophy, 
Zoology 

Natural Philoso- 
phy, Chemistry 

Olmstead's A s- 
tronomy. Chem- 
istry, Mineralogy 


Abercrombie's In- 
tellectual Power, 
Paley's Natural 
Theology 


4 


I 
2 

3 


Lectures on Greek and 
Latin languages and 
literature 


Geology, Calculus 


Stuart's Intellec- 
tual Philosophy, 
Cousin's Psy- 
chology 

Whiteley's Logic, 
Wayland's Moral 
Science, Politi- 
cal Grammar 

Studies of Con- 
stitution. Way- 
land's Political 
Economy, But- 
ler's Analogy 



Note: The first commencement of the university was held August 6, 184s, 
at which time eleven students were given their A.B. degree. (McLaughlin, 
op. cii., p. 42.) 

Even a superficial analysis of this program discloses 
that Latin, Greek, and pure and applied mathematics 
constitute the bulk of the studies.^ In the fourth or senior 
year the emphasis is shifted to the intellectual and moral 
sciences. The course was rigidly prescribed, and con- 
sequently the preparatory studies pursued in the branches 
had to be dogmatically laid down. The requirements for 

1 That is to say, in 1843 there were offered, all told, in the University of Michigan, 
fifty term courses. Of these, Latin, Greek, and mathematics included 26; natural 
science, 9; intellectual science, 5; moral and religious science, 3; political science, 3; 
English, 4. . 



144 Public Secondary Education 

admission to the tiniversity/ together with the program 
of studies as set forth above, show that the University 
of Michigan was following pretty closely the ideals and 
forms set by the older colleges and universities. Very 
soon, however, this over-emphasis of the classics — 
especially of Greek — found critics. The State Board of 
Visitors appointed to inspect the university, to make 
a report, and to offer recommendations declared that 
they had given some attention to the relative impor- 
tance of the subjects of the course of study, and that 
they believed certain modifications were desirable.^ 

They called attention to the fact that the total number 
of recitations and lectures given in the university in 1850 
was 2,545. Of these, 330 were devoted to Latin; 630 to 
Greek; 495 to mathematics, pure and mixed; 236 to 
modem languages; and 854 to all other subjects. They 
thereupon recommended that Greek and Latin be treated 
alike and assigned 400 recitation periods each a year; that 
mathematics be given 500 meetings; and that French and 
German be increased to 200 class recitations each. 

The Annual Report of the regents for the same year 
gives the admission requirements as follows : ' ' Candidates 
for admission to the Freshman Class must not be less 
than fourteen years of age, and must sustain an examina- 
tion in English Grammar, Geography, Arithmetic, Algebra 
through simple equations, first part of Kreb's Guide to the 
Writing of Latin, Latin Reader, Cornelius Nepos (Arnold's), 
Cicero's Orations against Catiline, Vergil's Aeneid, Greek 
Reader to the poetry, the four Gospels, Latin and Greek 
Grammar, Keightley's Grecian and Roman History."^ 

Each class was required to attend three recitations or 
lectures daily, except Saturday and Sunday. On the 

1 These are given on page 135 of this chapter. 

2 Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1851, p. 38. 

3 Ibid., 1853, p. 267. 



Branches of the University 145 

former day there was held one exercise in elocution. This 
would give the familiar sixteen hours a week schedule 
that is known at present. There were "also frequent 
exercises in translation, composition and oral and v/ritten 
disputation" — the word "also" implying that these were 
subjects carried in addition to the regular sixteen hours' 
work. Public examinations were held at the close of each 
term, and were attended by the regents and the Board of 
Visitors sitting in their official capacities. All students 
were required to attend chapel exercises daily in the 
college hall, and to attend public worship each Sabbath 
in some one of the churches in Ann Arbor. Monday 
mornings throughout the four years there were compulsory 
classes in Bible study. In the freshman year the Gospels 
were the basis of work; in the sophomore year, the 
Acts; in the jimior and senior years, the Epistles. The 
textbook was the Greek Testament. 

The year's work was divided into three terms of thirteen 
weeks each. There were two weeks of vacation at Christ- 
mas time; three at Easter; and eight in the summer. 
Commencement was held the third Wednesday in July, 
and the fall term opened the second week in September. 
All admissions were still by examination only. 

The only charges of the institution at this time were 
a matriculation fee of ten dollars, and a sum ranging 
from five dollars to seven dollars and fifty cents a year 
for room rent and the services of the janitor. Tuition 
was wholly gratuitous. "Including board, washing, and 
books the necessary expenses of a student for a year will 
range from $70 to $100."^ This was in 1850. 

Only slight changes had been made in the program of 
studies since 1843. ^^ 1850 it was as follows.^ 

1 Taken from the college catalogue for 1850 and given in Report of Superintendent 
of Public Insiruciion, 1852, p. 269. 

2 Ibid. 

11 



146 Public Secondary Education 

Freshman Year 
first term 
Livy (Lincoln's or Folsom's), Roman Antiquities (Eschenberg's 
Manual), Homer's Odyssey (Owen's), Bourdon's Algebra, Newman's 
Rhetoric. 

SECOND TERM 

Livy, Ancient History, Grecian Antiquities (Eschenberg's 
Manual), Homer's Odyssey, Algebra, Legendre's Geometry. 

THIRD TERM 

Horace's Odes, "Kenophon's Anabasis (Owen's), Geometry, Botany, 
Zoology. 

Monday morning throughout the year, Greek Testament 
(Gospels). •>• 

Sophomore Year 
first term 
Newman's Rhetoric, Horace's Satires, Xenophon's Anabasis, 
Plane and Spherical Trigonometry, Conic Sections. 

SECOND TERM 

Analjrtical Geometry and Calculus, Tacitus' Germaniae and Agri- 
colae (Tyler's), Demosthenes' de Corona, Isocrates. 

THIRD TERM 

Sophocles, Cicero's de Senectute and de Amicitia, French. 
Monday morning throughout the year, Greek Testament (Acts). 

Junior Year 
first term 
Wayland's Political Economy, Logic, French, Olmstead's Natural 
Philosophy. 

SECOND TERM 

Tacitus' Historia, Euripides, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, 

Mineralogy. 

third term 
German, Blair's Rhetoric, Olmstead's Astronomy. 
Monday mornings throughout the year, Greek Testament 
(Epistles). 

Senior Year 
first term 
Geology, Upham's Menial Philosophy, German. 

SECOND TERM 

Upham's Mental Philosophy (3d Vol.), Whiteley's Logic, Way- 
land's Moral Science, Natural Theology, Evidences of Christianity. 



' Branches of the University 147 

THIRD TERM 

Butler's Analogy, Plato's Gorgias. 

Monday mornings throughout the year, Greek Testament 
(Epistles). 

The total number of students in 1 8 5 o was 7 2 . Ten years 
later it was 519; in 1880-81 it reached 1,534;^ in 1907-8 
the total was 5,010;^ and in 1913-14 the members ag- 
gregated 6,857.^ Of these, more than i , 2 00 were women. 

Naturally the branches had to keep step with this 
restricted program of the university; — at least the pre- 
paratory or classical departments had to do so. In 
consequence, as we have seen, popular approval was 
gradually withdrawn from both types of institution. 
In 1850, the date of the program given above, the Romeo 
branch was the only one in existence, and this was sup- 
ported by local fimds. Still, at this very time there was 
a demand on the part of the more progressive citizens 
and the lovers of popular education that the branches be 
revived and supported. Indeed, pressure was brought to 
bear upon the legislature so that a law was enacted 
reqmring the regents to continue their appropriations to 
the branches. This act placed the authorities in an 
embarrassing position. Though eager and ready to 
comply, the state of finances was still such as to render 
impossible a just and adequate maintenance for both 
the university and the dependent schools. To attempt 
to do so, the regents felt, would cripple both and lead 
finally to a retrograde movement in all that had been 
planned. Fortimately — or imfortunately — the courts 
came to the aid of the university, and disposed of the 
difficulty by setting aside the newly enacted law and by so 

1 President's Report, 1881, p. i. The Department of Medicine was opened in 
1851; that of Law in i860; those of Homeopathy and Dentistry in 1876; that of 
Pharmacy in 1877. 

2 Catalogue, 1907-8, p. 470. In 1906-7 there were 741 women students 
enrolled. President's Report, 1907. p. 2. 

3 Catalogue, 1914-15, p. 707. 



148 Public Secondary Education 

construing the constitution that the regents were given 
full power to deal with the university as they thought 
wise. Left free to act as judgment dictated, the regents 
took no further notice of the conflicting requests, but left 
the branches, as they had been left since 1846, to live or 
die as fate might decide. 

All hope of their official revival was now abandoned, 
and the friends of public education directed their view 
and attention to secondary schools of other kinds. Such 
institutions had, as we have hinted, already become well 
started, and from this date they advanced rapidly. 
Thus died the branches of the University of Michigan. 

As a final justification of their policy carried out during 
the fourteen years, the regents authorized one of their 
number. Dr. Zina Pitcher, to prepare an address that was 
printed and distributed over the state. The most 
significant parts of this address are here appended:^ 

Having selected the site of the University, secured the means 
of erecting the buildings, purchasing the library, and of having 
other things necessary to lay its foundation, it became apparent 
that the materials for the construction of the living edifice were not 
at hand. The blocks for the statuary were in the quarry, but there 
were no hands to hew them into form. Our political and social 
institutions were yet in a transition state. The common schools 
were then in chaos, and our whole system of Public Instruction in 
the state, at best, [was in a condition] of inchoation. Believing 
that the attempt to establish or organize the University at this 
stage of our political existence, in this condition of the other edu- 
cational institutions of the state, would prove abortive, the regents 
resolved (as a constitutional authority or warrant for so doing had 
not then been questioned,) to invert the order of things contem- 
plated in the organic law, and proceed at once to the establishment 
of branches as a means of furnishing the elements necessary to give 
vitality to the central institution, when the time for appointing its 
Faculty shotild arrive. 

1 The address in full is found on pages 312 _f. of Report of Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, 1852. It epitomizes the transactions of the regents from 1837 to 
June 30. 1851. 



Branches of the University 149 

In order to carry this purpose into effect, the committee on 
branches was authorized to employ an agent to visit the different 
sections of the state and engage the cooperation of citizens living 
at such points as seemed most suitable for the establishment of 
branches, and report his doings to the Board. This agent, who was 
restricted to eight localities, reported in favor of locating a branch 
at Pontiac, Detroit, Monroe, Tecumseh, Niles, Grand Rapids, 
Palmer and Jackson, the citizens of which were required to furnish 
the site and the edifice necessary for the accommodation of the pupils. 
On the fulfillment of these conditions, branches were organized at 
Monroe, Tecumseh, Niles, White Pigeon, Kalamazoo, Pontiac, 
Romeo and Detroit. A department for the education of females 
was added to the branch at Monroe, Tecumseh, White Pigeon, 
Kalamazoo, and Romeo. Branches were also located at Mackinac, 
Jackson, Utica, Ypsilanti and Coldwater, but no appropriations 
were ever made for their support. 

On the first organization of the Board of Regents, it included no 
clerical members. For this reason, the University then in futuro, 
was stigmatized as an infidel affair, which, it was predicted, would 
fail to perform the functions for which it had been endowed. This 
prediction was uttered with much confidence in certain quarters, 
and an act for the incorporation of a sectarian college was urged 
through the Legislature, partly by the force of an appeal to the 
religious feeling of the members, based on this accusation. Partly 
with a view to disarm that kind of opposition, and more especially 
because they believed it to be a duty, irrespective of it, the Board 
was careful to introduce the elements of religion into the branches, 
which they did by the appointment of clergymen of the different 
denominations as principals thereof. 

In the adoption of rules for the government of the branches, 
special care was taken to guard the common school interest from 
injury, by requiring candidates for admission to undergo a pre- 
paratory examination. Tuition was to be paid in advance. A 
treasurer was appointed for each branch, who was required to 
make a report of the funds in his hands, at the close of each term. 
The course of study to be pursued therein was prescribed by the 
Board of Regents, which embraced the preparation of the pupil 
for college, his qualification for business, or for teaching, as he 
might himself elect. 

With the design of inducing young men who had been educated 
at the branches, to engage in the business of instruction, a 



ISO Public Secondary Education 

regulation was adopted which authorized the treasurer to refund 
the money paid for tuition, to all such persons as should furnish 
to him evidence of having been engaged in teaching, having 
regard to the time they had been thus employed. A board of 
visitors was also appointed for each branch, to whom such powers 
were delegated as seemed necessary to the practical working of 
the system. 

Notwithstanding the pains taken to adapt these institutions 
to the public exigencies, so that their legitimate functions could be 
performed without infringing upon another portion of the educa- 
tional system, they soon began to decline in popular estimation, 
because they were not able at the same time to perform the functions 
of a common school as well as a branch of the University. A feel- 
ing of jealousy was awakened in the minds of those whose children 
were excluded from them either from want of age or qualifications. 
Consequently they were soon regarded as places for the education 
of the (so-called) aristocracy of the state, and the University, through 
the influence of the branches, began to be spoken of as an enemy to 
popular education. If an opinion may be formed of public senti- 
ment by the tone of certain official papers, it would appear that 
that feeling, instead of becoming extinct, has only changed the 
mode and place of its appearing. 

Finding that the branches were drawing largely upon the fund 
designed for the construction of the University building, and that 
they were not satisfactorily accomplishing the end for which they 
had been established, the Board of Regents, after mature delibera- 
tion, being fully assured that the expense of keeping them up was 
greatly disproportioned to the benefits accruing therefrom, sus- 
pended, in 1846, all appropriations for their support, after more 
than $30,000 had been expended in trying to sustain them. 

Whilst this trial was being made of the utility of branches, 
Professor Gray was in Europe selecting the library of the University, 
and Dr. Torrey, of New York, was negotiating the purchase of the 
Lederer cabinet of foreign minerals, which now constitutes the 
principal sources of attraction to persons visiting this institution. 

From this experimental though abortive effort to build up and 
sustain branches of the University, the Board have learned, and 
they deem the lesson of sufficient importance to leave it on record, 
that local institutions of learning thrive best under the immediate 
management of the citizens of the place in which they are situated, 
and when endowed or sustained by their immediate patrons. 



CHAPTER VII 
The Academy Movement 

THE second great type of secondary school in Michigan 
was the academy. While, as elsewhere, this class of 
schools was not, strictly speaking, a part of the state- 
supported educational system, the different foundations 
were nevertheless quasi-public institutions which were 
chartered and regulated by the state and which the 
people then regarded essentially as public schools. 
Certain it is that during the two decades in particu- 
lar — from 1839 to 1859 — the academies and kindred 
institutions played a notable part in the history of 
secondary education in Michigan. Indeed, a historical 
account of the public secondary schools of this state 
wotild be wholly incomplete without a brief sketch of 
the rise and status of the academy. 

In earher chapters we have seen that there were a few 
private schools of the academy type in Michigan even 
before the state was admitted into the Union. The 
records respecting these are, however, scant indeed. For 
the most part they are the merest legal statements respect- 
ing the terms of the charters given, or the briefest accounts 
of the fact that a particular school was "kept" by a 
particular person at a particular time and place. This 
is all. There is nothing available that 5delds returns 
worthy of the search. Apparently most, if not all, of 
these early private schools were of short duration and of 
doubtful financial success. Many of them taught the 
classical languages and French,^ and may, in a sense, 

iMr. William D. Wilkins, in an article styled "Traditions and Reminiscences 
of the Public Schools of Detroit," in the Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. i, p. 
448, speaks of there being "public" schools in Detroit in 1802, 1816, 1823, and, 
later. Some of these taught the classics, but not one, surely, was a public school 
in the present meaning of the term. 



152 Public Secondary Education 

be looked upon as schools of secondary education. How- 
ever, since in that age these languages were considered 
essential for even any true elementary education, it would 
be equally just to omit from consideration all these 
schools, as falling below the grade of institutions imder 
treatment in this thesis. 

When, too, it is recalled that the total population of 
Michigan in 1830 numbered only 31,639,^ and that the 
real movement toward settling this territory had begun 
only about five years earlier than this, one is not sur- 
prised to learn that even private schools were then few 
and inferior. Certain it is that previous to 1830 there 
were in the territory no incorporated schools.^ The 
schools that did exist had a denominational or personal 
basis, and enjoyed only transitory careers. 

Between 1830 and 1836 a number of private academies 
were foimded, and some received legal charters from the 
territorial government.^ A list of these will be given 
later. Most of them, however, were short lived, — the 
only one that enjoyed a permanent existence and exerted 
a lasting influence being the Spring Arbor Academy, 
chartered March 23, 1835. 

With the admission of Michigan to statehood and the 
decision of the educational authorities to establish a 
series of branches of the university, the academy move- 
ment was much affected. There was a strong temporary 
movement forward, followed by a short period of depres- 
sion, and then again a new advance was made. At first, 

1 U.S. Census Reports. 

2 Farmer's History of Detroit, p. 98. 

3 In Detroit alone there were the following unincorporated schools: the Misses 
Farrand's Young Ladies' Seminary and Mr. George Wilson's English Classical 
School, both established in 1830; J. B. Howe's Classical Academy, 1832; D. B. 
Crane's Classical School, 1833; Messrs. Tappan and Nichols' Detroit Female 
Seminary, 1833. In 1834 the Mechanics' Society opened the Mechanics' Academy, 
and also had a Classical School. In 1836 Rev. R. Elms was at the head of the 
Detroit Classical Academy. There were also at this time Catholic schools in 
goodly numbers. (See Farmer's History of Detroit, pp. 716 ff.) 



The Academy Movement 153 

existing academies sought to be transformed into branches 
and to be placed under the patronage and dignity of the 
state. Many new academies were projected, some were 
organized, and appeals were made to the regents for 
recognition as branches. When, however, it was seen 
to be the policy of the state to limit the branches to a 
relatively small number, enthusiasm for the local private 
institution waned. Numerous projected undertakings 
were abandoned altogether, and man}^ that had already 
been established suffered from neglect and lack of stu- 
dents and funds. For a few years popular interest in 
secondary education centered in the state-supported 
branches. Nevertheless, despite these adverse tendencies, 
nearly every year during this period witnessed the incor- 
poration of a new school of the academy type, so that 
when in 1846 the regents abandoned the branches to their 
fates, popular interest turned again to the earlier schools, 
and an era of renewed prosperity set in. During the next 
ten years the academy movement reached the height of its 
importance in Michigan. At the end of that decade the 
public union schools had secured a firm footing, and the 
academies gradually disappeared from among the notable 
educational institutions of secondary grade in the state. 

Just how many of these schools there were in the state 
it is almost impossible to determine. Many, as we have 
said, seem to have been undertaken with enthusiasm only 
to be abandoned Vvdthin a few months or weeks because 
of lack of funds and patronage.^ Others arose and had 
a more or less dazzling success but were never incor- 
porated, and hence left no official records of their work.^ 

1 Examples of these are the Utica Female Seminary, incorporated 1844; Clinton 
Institute, 1846; Woodstock Manual Labor Institute, 1848. 

2 Two of this kind of which fate has preserved a record are the Misses Clark's 
Female Seminary at Ann Arbor, opened in 1839, and Dr. Fitch's Detroit Female 
Seminary, opened in 1841. Neither of these was ever incorporated. (See A. D. P. 
VanBuren's"The01d Academy and Seminary" in MicA. Hist, Co/., Vol. 18, p. 397.) 



154 Ptiblic Secondary Education 

Others, again, were incorporated; ran a short course; died 
out; and were later revived under the same or a different 
name.^ The question arises — should credit be given for 
one or two or more schools? 

In addition to academies and seminaries there also 
arose after 1839 several institutions of a similar character 
which, however, bore the more dignified title of "college," 
and were empowered to grant degrees and to bestow the 
privileges that other colleges did. Several of these had 
attached to them preparatory departments,^ and it seems 
certain, moreover, that in some instances the college course 
itself was Httle or no fiu-ther advanced than the course 
found in the better class of academies or seminaries.^ For 
example, the Michigan Central College, chartered in 1845, 
was not given the right to confer degrees or grant diplomas 
until five years later, in 1850.* 

The early history of one of these colleges in particular — 
Michigan College, located at Marshall — is both interest- 
ing and pertinent to our theme. It will be recalled that 
Superintendent Pierce, when he took charge of educa- 
tion in the state in 1836, favored a highly central- 
ized, monopolistic state system of education. Doubtless 
overinfluenced by admiration for the Prussian system 
of government and of school administration, he opposed 
most stubbornly and vehemently any plan that would tend 
to undermine or detract from the powers and prestige of 
the state. Hence he set his great personal influence and 
the strength of his official position in opposition to any 
scheme that had for its aim the incorporating of colleges 

1 The Clinton Institute at Mt. Clemens is an illustration of this fact. 

2 For example, Michigan Central College at Spring Arbor had attached to it the 
Spring Arbor Academy; Kalamazoo College had a preparatory course; and Wesleyan 
Seminary and Albion Female College were one and the same institution. 

3 I find no exact distinction between these two terms. As a rule, in Michigan, 
the word seminary signified an institution of secondary instruction for women only; 
the academy was usually coeducational. 

4 Joint Documents of Michigan, 185 1, p. 500. 



The Academy Movement 155 

that should be rivals of the state tiniversity. The test 
of power came in 1838 when the trustees of Michigan 
College sought a charter from the legislature. 

The association had existed since 1833 and had looked 
forward for several years to the realization of the ideal 
to found a college embodying the particular religious 
faith of its members. Mr. Pierce fought the plan fiercely 
before the legislature and based his objections chiefly on 
the following arguments: (i) If one college is chartered, 
others will follow until the state will be covered over with 
little, weak, struggling institutions that will bring college 
education into contempt; (2) such institutions will divide 
the patronage of the commonwealth and detract from 
the University of Michigan; (3) they will create literary 
factions founded perhaps on religious opinions; and 
(4) they will introduce "pernicious differences in the 
coiu-se of instruction." 

The committee of the legislature to which the question 
was referred did not, however, share Mr. Pierce's views. 
The majority report so stated the decision and recom- 
mended that the charter be granted. The salient features 
of that report are worthy of insertion here. One reads: 
"The majority of your committee have anxiously delib- 
erated upon the evils anticipated by the superintendent 
in granting the prayer of the petitioners, but have not 
been able to persuade themselves of their reality. They 
cannot appreciate the force of the objection made, that 
by granting the franchise asked, we encourage others to 
make like requests. . . . They deem it the duty of 
the legislature not only to prevent all impediments, but 
to afford facilities for the progress of general education; 
to speak words of encouragement rather than of re- 
straint to those who volimteer aid; and not from any over- 
weening fondness for one institution or one particular 



156 Public Secondary Education 

system to place all others under the ban of power. "^ 

The next year, in 1839, the college was duly chartered 
and the way was opened for other similar institutions. 

It is not my purpose here to speak of the wisdom or the 
lack of wisdom of this piece of legislation. The point 
that concerns us is that from this date other colleges than 
the State University existed in Michigan, and that in 
consequence these, too, put forth efforts to secure stu- 
dents and hence exerted their influence to foster prepara- 
tory schools of one kind or another. That class of people 
who aspired to give their children a college education, 
but who looked upon the State University as non-religious, 
if not absolutely irreligious, could now find other schools 
that met their approval and favor. These new centers 
of higher learning helped, therefore, to spread an interest 
in knowledge and culture, and hence helped to foster 
the rise of academies, seminaries, and other institutions 
giving pre-coUegiate instruction. The next few years, 
therefore, saw a rapid increase in schools of these kinds. 

Still one other type of educational institution should be 
mentioned in this connection. This was the chartered 
literary society, whose leading purpose was "for moral 
and intellectual improvement" of its members through 
mutual self-help. Although not in themselves strictly 
schools of secondary education, these societies not infre- 
quently pursued studies that belonged to the category of a 
secondary program of studies, and were the stepping stones 
for some youths to a full college career. 

The Adrian Lyceum and Benevolent Association 
expressly stated that among other aims it purposed to 
"provide for the Education of Orphan Children";^ while 
the Lawrence Literary Institute Association, founded in 

'i- House Documents, 1838, No. ir, p. 120. 

^ Joint Documents of the Legislature of Michigan, 1831, No. 19, p. 541. 



The Academy Movement 157 

1850, had inserted in its charter this section: "Said 
corporation shall have power to establish in the village 
of Lawrence, in the County of Van Buren, an institution, 
for the instruction of young persons in the ordinary 
and higher departments of learning."^ 

The first of these associations chartered seems to have 
been that of the Detroit Young Men's Society in 1836.^ 

All these societies were liable to be called upon for 
an annual report to the legislature, but such reports were 
not made mandatory by the charters. Likewise, too, 
all chartered educational institutions of other types 
were expected to make such annual reports. Indeed, 
the act of 1839 expressly required such reports from all.^ 
Few, however, complied with the law. In his report 
of 1849, Superintendent Mayhew said that after examin- 
ing the laws back as far as 1841 there appeared to be 
seventeen incorporated literary and educational institu- 
tions in the state. Five of these, he added, were subject 
to visitation by state authorities, just as the university 
was subject to inspection. These were Adrian Academy, 
incorporated in 1846; Woodstock Manual Labor Institute, 
incorporated in 1848; Leoni Seminary, incorporated in 
1848; Olivet Institute, incorporated in 1848; and Howell 
Academy, incorporated in 1848. Three others were 
required to make annual reports : Vermontville Academ- 
ical Association, 1846; White Pigeon Academy, 1847; and 
Clinton Institute, 1846. Eight were not required to 
report or to be visited by the superintendent,^ while one — 

1 Ibid., No. 306, p. 543. 

2 Ibid., p. 539. 

S School Law of 1852, p. 497; also Joint Documents, 1851, p. 497. This law 
required "every organized academy or literary or collegiate institution, heretofore 
incorporated or hereafter to be incorporated, to cause to be made out — and for- 
warded — to the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, between the ist and 
iSth days of December of each year," a complete report of conditions and work 
of the institution. This law was approved March 4, 1839. 

■* This statement of Mr. Mayhew's seems to have been made without taking 
into consideration the general law of 1839, cited above. Of the eight institutions 
mentioned three were Female Institutions and one a Theological Institute. 



158 Public Secondary Education 

the Michigan Central College — was, by law, required 
to be visited and examined annually by the superintendent 
in person,^ How lightly the statutes weighed upon the 
consciences of the various trustees is seen from the pith}'^ 
closing sentence: "None have complied with the law."^ 

Thus, beginning with 1835, there arose in the state a 
whole series of institutions of a semi-public, semi-private, 
or denominational character that helped mightily to 
carry forward secondary education. These were the 
imchartered schools of one kind or another; the chartered 
literary associations, academies, seminaries, institutes, 
and colleges; the branches of the university; and the 
union schools.^ 

It may be of interest, especially to citizens of Michigan, 
to have a complete list of all these chartered schools, 
together with the dates of their incorporation. I append 
here such a list:* 

Title Incorporated 

1. Ann Arbor Academy, Ann Arbor 1830 

2. Auburn Academy, Auburn 1831 

3. White Pigeon Academy, White Pigeon 1 831 

4. Cass County Academy, Cassopolis 1833 

5. Michigan and Huron Institute, Kalamazoo 1833 

6. Michigan Manual Labor Institute, Washtenaw Co 1833 

7. Pontiac Academy, Pontiac 1833 

8. Richland Academy, Richland 1833 

9. Romeo Academy, Romeo 1833 

10. Shelby Liberal Institute, Macomb Co 1 833 

11. Spring Arbor Seminary, Spring Arbor ^ 1 835 

12. Marshall Academy, White Pigeon 1836 

13. Detroit Young Men's Society, Detroit 1836 

14. Kalamazoo Literary Institute, Kalamazoo 1837 

15. Tecumseh Academy, Tecumseh 1838 

16. Grass Lake Academy and Female Seminary, Grass 

Lake 1839 

17. Grand River Theological Seminary, Orion 1839 

1 Joint Documents, 1849, No. 6, p. 6g. 

2 The superintendent himself had, of course, visited and examined the Mich- 
igan Central College. 

3 We shall treat of these in a subsequent chapter. 

4 This list is compiled from the Joint Documents, Legislative Acts, Reports 
of Superintendents of Public Instruction, and other source materials. 

5 This school was rechartered by an amended act in 1837. 



The Academy Movement 159 

Title Incorporated 

18. Marshall Female Academy, Marshall 1839 

19. Marshall College (Michigan College), Marshall 1839 

20. St. Philip's College (Catholic), Detroit 1839 

21. Wesleyan Seminary, Albion^ 1841 

22. Allegan Academy, Allegan 1843 

23. Utica Female Seminary, Utica 1844 

24. Grand Rapids Academy, Grand Rapids 1844 

25. Ann Arbor Female Seminary, Ann Arbor 2 1845 

26. Michigan Central College, Spring Arbor 1845 

27. Ypsilanti Seminary, Ypsilanti 1845 

28. Adrian Seminary, Adrian 1846 

29. Adrian Lyceum and Benevolent Association for 

Orphan Children, Adrian 1846 

30. Clinton Institute, Mt. Clemens 1846 

31. Owosso Literary Institute, Owosso 1846 

32. Vermontville Academical Institution, Vermontville . . 1846 

33. White Pigeon Academy, White Pigeon 1847 

34. Raisin Institute, Lenawee Co 1847 

35. Howell Institute, Howell 1848 

36. Leoni Theological Institute, Leoni 1848 

37. Leoni Seminary, Leoni 1848 

38. Olivet Institute, OHvet 1848 

39. Woodstock Manual Labor Seminary, Woodstock 1848 

40. Tecumseh Literary Institute, Tecumseh 1849 

41. Oakland Female Seminary, Pontiac 1849 

42. Clinton Institute, Mt. Clemens 1850 

43. Monroe Young Ladies' Seminary and Collegiate Insti- 

tute, Monroe 1850 

44. Clarkston Academical Institute, Clarkston 1850 

45. St. Mark's College, Grand Rapids 1850 

46. St. Mary's Academy, Bertrand 1850 

47. Union Hall Association, Monroe 1850 

48. Almont Young Men's Society, Almont 1850 

49. Lawrence Literary Institute Association, Lawrence. . . 1850 

50. Niles Union Hall Association, Niles 1850 

51. Academy of the Sacred Heart, Detroit 1850 

52. Albion Female Collegiate Institute, Albion 1850 

53. Disco Academy, Disco 1850 

54. Kalamazoo Literary Institute, Kalamazoo 1 851 

55. Dickinson Institute, Romeo 1855 

56. German English School, Detroit 1857 

57. Colon Seminary, Colon 1858 

58. Lapeer Seminary, Lapeer 1858 

59. Michigan Female Seminary, Kalamazoo 1859 

60. Michigan Collegiate Institute, Leoni 1859 

61. Michigan Female College, Lansing 1859 

1 This was an amended act. The real incorporation was earlier. 

2 There was also established at Ann Arbor this same year the Misses Clark 
School. This was really a seminary, but was distinct from the so-called Female 
Seminary. 



i6o Public Secondary Education 

Title Incorporated 

62. Detroit Female Seminary, Detroit 1859 

63. German American Seminary, Detroit 1 863 

64. Lansing Academy, Lansing 1 863 

65. Raisin Valley Seminary, Adrian 1863 

66. Bedford Harmonical Seminary, Calhoun Co 1 865 

67. German English School, Grand Rapids 1865 

68. Coldwater Female Seminary, Coldwater 1866 

69. Fenton Seminary, Fenton 1868 

70. Trinity School, Fenton 1868 

71. Oak Grove Academy, Medina 1873 

72. Spring Arbor Seminary, Spring Arbor 1873 

73. Michigan Military Academy, Orchard Lake 1877 

74. Theological School of the Christian Reformed Church, 

Grand Rapids 1878 

75. Somerville School, St. Clair 1880 

76. Seminary of the Felician Sisters, Detroit 1882 

77. Detroit Home and Day School, Detroit 1882 

78. Academy of the Sacred Heart, Grosse Point Farms. . . 1885 

79. Akeley Hall, Grand Haven 1889 

80. St. Mary's Academy, Monroe 1890 

81. Detroit School for Boys, Detroit 1890 

82. Cleary Business College, Ypsilanti 1891 

83. Benton Harbor Collegiate Institute, Benton Harbor . . 1892 

84. Ferris Institute, Big Rapids 1894 

85. Michigan Business and Normal College, Battle Creek. 1896 

86. International Business College, Saginaw 1 896 

87. Nazareth Academy, Nazareth 1897 

88. Grand Rapids Business University, Grand Rapids. . . . 1897 

89. Fenton Normal School and Business College, Fenton.. 1898 

90. Ludington Business College, Ludington 1898 

91. Academy for Ladies of the Loretto, Sault Ste. Marie. . 1898 

92. St. Mary's School, Sault Ste. Marie 1898 

93. Ursuline Academy, St. Ignace , 1899 

94. Benzonia Academy, Benzonia 1900 

95. Jackson Business University, Jackson 1901 

96. Detroit University School, Detroit 1901 

97. Holy Rosary Academy, Bay City 190 1 

98. Cedar Lake Academy, Cedar Lake 1902 

99. Parson's Business College, Kalamazoo 1906 

100, Valley City Commercial School, Grand Rapids 1907 

This list evidences the repeated attempts that were 

made in certain communities to secure a permanent and 
successful school. It also discloses the variety of titles 
that were employed to designate schools of the type under 

consideration. A third and highly interesting fact 
deduced from the list is the wonderful acceleration of the 



The Academy Movement i6i 

academy movement immediately following the suspension 
of the university branches in 1847 and the gradual 
abatement of the movement after the legal establishment 
of public high schools in 1859. The period of seeming 
depression between 1850 and 1855 is explained by the 
fact that the revised constitution of the former date 
forbade granting charters save under the operation of a 
general law.^ Such a law was not enacted imtil 1855. 
It is also to be observed that most of the private institu- 
tions of the academy type founded since 1880 have been 
either business schools or academic schools established 
under the control of Catholic orders. 

As already pointed out, most of these academical insti- 
tutions aimed to give an extended and varied elementary 
and secondary course of study, but with the emphasis 
always upon the latter phase. 

Superintendent Shearman, in his report of 1850, speaks 
of the incorporated schools thus: "Several of these 
institutions are doing valuable service to the cause, not 
only in preparing students for the University, but in 
bestowing the means upon many of acquiring not only a 
good, but a classical education."^ 

While all of these schools were legally recognized by 
the state, no financial aid was ever granted them. As 
we have seen in other chapters, provisions for education 
in Michigan — and for the most part in other states, too — 
have, until a comparatively recent date, been incon- 
gruous and inconsistent in the extreme. The laws 
afforded a college or university course free to all, and 
likewise the rudiments of a general elementary education ; 
but they left a wide gap between the two, over which 
every individual was forced to help himself as best he 

1 All the charters granted up to 1851 were granted by special legislative enact- 
ments. 

2 Joint Documents, 1850, No. 6, p. 11. 

12 



1 62 PMic Secondary Education 

might. To be sure, the Catholepistemiad had held up 
another ideal, as did also the later state laws establishing 
the university with branches. But even in the branches, 
education was not free. Still, the tuition was nominal. 
When the branches declined, the gulf between higher 
and lower education was aggravatingly apparent — de jure 
as well as de facto. Then it was that the academies 
exerted their powers to bridge the chasm, but people 
were not wholly satisfied. 

In general, the friends of education in Michigan at this 
time may be divided into three classes. One division 
insisted that the constitution required the regents of the 
university to maintain the branches, and looked to the 
courts for the enforcement of the law. A second party, 
holding that the regents were within their statutory 
powers, argued however that justice to the children of 
the state, to the iiniversity, and to the academies them- 
selves demanded that the legislature should provide 
financial support for the private institutions that were 
willing to comply with certain fair legal requirements. 
The third class, as we shall see in the following chapter, 
looked to the expansion and development of the ele- 
mentary schools as the true solution. Their plan was 
to make these schools the institutions of secondary 
training. 

Of course there was a fourth party that was more or 
less indifferent to the whole matter, and urged that events 
be left to work themselves out as they might. 

All the superintendents up to 1850 hoped and advised 
that the branches be reestablished and maintained by 
the state. Superintendent Mayhew, however, in his re- 
ports for 1855-57, urged upon the legislature the duty 
of taking over the various academies and seminaries, and 
of subsidizing them generously. But events were opposed 



The Academy Movement 163 

to both these plans, for by this date the union school had 
conquered. After a last noble effort the private secondary 
schools of Michigan gave up the struggle for supremacy 
and slowly but surely were forced almost entirely out of 
the field. A few labored on, joined from time to time by 
new recruits who seemed to think there was a favorable 
opening for a rehabilitation of the old form. Most, 
however, in time ceased to exist, or were transformed into 
colleges, and have continued more or less successful 
existences down to the present day.^ 

While some of the academical institutions were estab- 
lished by religious denominations, the majority seem to 
have been purely secular in nature and were organized 
by stock companies. The earlier charters usually made 
no mention of the amoimt of stock to be subscribed, but 
merely gave the organizers the power to "acquire, hold, 
and convey property, real and personal." Later charters 
contained clauses limiting the amount of the capital 
stock and specifying the par value of the shares. The 
amount of capitalized stock varied with the size of the 
towns in which the companies were to operate, and with 
the enthusiasm of the day. In the '40's, stock companies, 
capitalized at $50,000 or $25,000, were not uncommon. 
Later, $10,000 seems to have been the more usual simi, 
though instances of $5,000 or even $1,000 are not lacking.^ 
Shares ranged in value from $5 to $50 each. The number 
of trustees ranged from five to twenty-one.^ 

In the earlier charters the specific aim of the insti- 
tutions was not mentioned at all. Later charters contain 

1 Kalamazoo College developed out of the Michigan and Huron Institute in i8sS- 
Spring Arbor Academy was merged with the Wesleyan Seminary and Female 
College at Albion and became Albion College in 1861. Olivet Institute became 
Olivet College in 1859. 

2 Spring Arbor Seminary in 183S was capitalized at $50,000; Marshall Academy, 
White Pigeon, in 1836, at $20,000; Utica Female Academy, in 1844, at $5,000; Adrian 
Seminary in 1846, Raisin Institute in 1847, and Howell Academy in 1848, each 
at $10,000; Clinton Institute, 1850, at $1,000. 

3 Joint Doaimenls, 1851, pp. 497 ff. 



1 64 Public Secondary Education 

expressions like these: "for the instruction of young 
persons in the ancient and modem languages, or litera- 
tures, and the arts and sciences";^ "an institution of 
learning for instruction of persons in the various branches 
of literature and the arts and sciences. "^ 

The limits of this work preclude the consideration of 
any one of these academies in detail. Still, some of the 
charters contain peculiarly interesting provisions which 
help to make clear the popular educational thought of 
the times. That the University of Michigan was to be 
considered the standardizing institution is evidenced by 
the following provisions found in the charters of Michigan 
Central College and of Marshall College, respectivel}^ 
One reads there: "The course of study pursued in said 
college shall be in all respects as comprehensive and 
thorough as that required or which shall hereafter be 
required in the University of Michigan."^ Also: "The 
primary degrees shall not be conferred on any students 
who shall not have passed through a course of studies, 
similar or equivalent to, and at least as thorough as that 
prescribed by the regents of the University for candidates 
for like degrees."^ 

We also find several interesting provisions respecting 
religion. Section lo of the charter of Marshall College 
reads: "No religious test whatever shall be required 
from any stockholder, trustee, teacher, or pupil, nor shall 
the tenets of any particular religious denomination be 
inculcated in said academy."^ 

And again: "No person shall be excluded from any 

1 Found in section 2 of the charter of Leoni Seminary in 1848. Also found in the 
charter of Olivet Institute, and others. 

2 Found in section 2 of the charter for Tecumseh Institute in 184Q. 

3 Section 14 of an act amendatory to the act chartering Michigan Central College, 
1850. (Joint Documents, 1851, No. 121, p. 500.) 

4 Found in section 9 of act incorporating Marshall College, 1839. (Joint 
Documents, 1851, No. 60, p. Sii.) 

5 Incorporating act. (See Report, l8S2, p. 499, sec. 10.) 



The Academy Movement 165 

privilege, immunity, or situation in said college on account 
of his religious opinions, provided he demean himself in 
a sober, peaceable, and orderly manner and conform to 
the rules and regulations thereof. "'^ 

With respect to the chartered Catholic institutions, 
several seemingly strange provisions are found. The 
charter of St. Philip's College at Detroit was made out 
to a single person, namely, "the Bishop of Detroit and 
his successors in said office of Bishop of Detroit duly 
appointed by the See at Rome."^ 

The charter granted to St. Mary's Academy (Catholic) 
at Bertrand declared that "said corporation shall not 
hold any real estate more than five years after they shall 
have become owners of the same, except such real estate 
as shall be necessary for the objects of the corporation." 
Again: "The amount of real and personal property 
which said corporation may hold shall not at any time 
exceed $50,000." Still again: "No deed or devise of 
land made to said corporation by any person or persons 
during his or her last sickness shall be valid. "^ 

One sees in these provisions an effort to prevent any 
educational or religious corporation from securing and 
holding enormous properties that should be exempt from 
state taxation.^ The restrictions did not apply to Cath- 
olic institutions alone. Provisions similar to the above 
are found in many other charters, especially in those 
granted to hterary associations whose aim was not 
avowedly to serve the entire public. 

The charter of the Woodstock Manual Labor Institute 

1 Section 4 of incorporating act of Michigan Central College in 1845. (Joint 
Documents, 1851, No. 32, p. 499.) 

2 Section i of incorporating law. (Joint Documents, 1851, p. S13.) 

3 Sentences taken from section I of the incorporating act. (Joint Documents, 
1851, p. 538.) 

4 St. Mary's Academy was later moved two or three miles sputhward across the 
line into Indiana, where apparently less restrictive laws prevailed. It is now one 
of the most notable and wealthy Catholic schools in the country, and has large 
real-estate holdings. 



i66 Public Secondary Education 

contains this statement of aim: it is "for instruction of 
persons of color, and others, in ancient and modern 
languages or Hteratures, and arts and sciences."* This 
is the only school I find that expressly includes in its 
aim the intention to give instruction to negroes. The 
institution, however, was short lived. 

The incorporating act of the Oakland Female Seminary, 
1849, declares that "no male teacher shall at any time 
hereafter forever be employed in the seminary hereby 
incorporated."^ This school seems not to have had a 
long existence either. 

Like their predecessors — the academies of the eighteenth 
century — these quasi-public institutions of the nine- 
teenth century (when they succeeded at all) exerted a re- 
markable influence on the life of the communities in which 
they were located. They were, to a large degree, truly 
people's colleges. In them youths of scant financial means 
secured a fairly extensive and thorough literary training.' 
They also received here what is of even more value — 
a grounding in the fundamental principles of the ethical, 
religious, and social sides of life. In these schools the 
youths mingled on an equal footing with their fellows. 
The training received in them made for social leadership 
and social betterment. In the truest sense, these schools 
were schools of social democracy. 

Nevertheless, they were select schools. After all, only 
the few attended them, and these few were apt to be the 
sons and daughters of the more prosperous citizens, or were 
yotmg men and yotmg women who by temperament, 

1 Section 2, Joint Documents, 1831, No. 42, p. 530. 

2 Section 9, Joint Documents, 1851, No. 168, p. 532. 

3 I am unable to find an account of the average expenses of a youth in one of these 
academies. President Fairfield of Hillsdale College reported in 1858 that the 
annual expenses there were as follows: tuition, $20; room rent, $6 to I9 per year; 
incidental expenses $2 to $3 per year; board in College Hall, $1.50 per week (with 
tea and coffee, Si-75) ; board in private families (room, furniture, and fuel included), 
$2 per week. This would have equaled between ^85 and $95 per year. The 
expenses in the academies could not have been much different. 



The Academy Movement 167 

nature, and ambition belonged to the superior ranks. 
Hence, like the branches and the old-time Latin school, 
the academies had their enemies, who charged them with 
being exclusive, snobbish, and undemocratic institutions, 
and sought their overthrow. 

This hostile attitude on the part of many, coupled with 
other circumstances, doubtless accoimts in large measure 
for the shifting fortunes experienced by so many of 
these schools, and finally for their gradual disappear- 
ance. There are snobs in Michigan, but the people as 
a whole are intensely democratic, and hate any contrary 
pretense. 

Discipline in these academical schools was not severe, 
but it was expected to be sufficiently rigid to check evil 
temptations and to inculcate a wholesome respect for 
law, for the social proprieties, and for individual tastes. 
The schools were usually sufficiently small to enable the 
students to come into immediate personal contact with 
the teachers,^ and most of these, we must believe, were 
men and women of noble ideals and gentle manners. One 
of the most enjoyable and beneficial practices found 
in many schools was the weekly, or daily, hour devoted to 
"General Exercises," when questions of vital importance 
to morals, manners, faith, and knowledge were discussed 
by the principal before the entire assembled school. 
Not infrequently this hotir was devoted to opening the 
"question box" and to discussing in a frank, sympathetic, 
and fluent way any pertinent questions that might have 
been asked by the students.^ By many, the principal's 
views were regarded as spoken ex cathedra. 

The school buildings were usually situated on the most 

1 For example, Clinton Institute in 1850 had 75 students and three teachers. 
(Report, 1851, p. 75.) Olivet had about 95 students, with five instructors, and 
Vermontville, in 1862, had 38 students with two instructors. (Report, 1853, p. 182.) 

2 Mention is made of this practice in an article bj' M. D. Osband in Michigan 
Pioneer Collections, Vol. 18, p. 657. 



1 68 Public Secondary Education 

sightly spot in the town, and were surrounded by spacious 
grounds covered over with the shade of a natural grove. 
Here is the beginning of attention to the aesthetic side 
of school training. 

The program of studies not infrequently was drawn to 
include elementary instruction in the English language, 
and advanced subjects which might or might not include 
the classics. The emphasis, however, was always laid 
upon the post-elementary instruction. This was real 
secondary work, and was the true ideal the academy set 
for itself. All instruction that was offered as preparatory 
to this was given to accommodate older students whose 
early advantages had been limited. However, many 
schools offered no elementary, preparatory course. 

As a rule the academy period proper extended over 
three years divided into three terms of thirteen, fourteen, 
or fifteen weeks each. The subject-matter was arranged 
in "departments." For example, the Wesleyan Semi- 
nary, in its report for 185 1, stated that the "Departments 
in this institution consist of the following branches of 
study, viz.: (i) Moral and Intellectual Science; (2) 
Natural Science; (3) Ancient Language and Elocution; 
(4) Mathematics; (5) Modern Language; (6) Belles 
Lettres; (7) Primary English Literature, and (8) Fine 
Arts."i 

Tuition charges depended upon the work taken. For 
illustration, in 1850, Clinton Institute, Mt. Clemens, 
published the following announcement of fees for the 
quarter of eleven weeks : 

For Elementary Branches $ 3 -oo 

For Common English Branches 4.00 

For Higher English Branches 5 • 00 

For Latin, Greek, and French 6 . 00 

For Music 8 , 00 

1 Superintendent's Report, 1851, p. 67. 



The Academy Movement 169 

Naturally the programs of study differed somewhat 
with different institutions. Still, since the ideals were 
nearly the same, the work offered was similar. The 
courses were regulated by the popular demands, which 
in turn varied with the traditions and ambitions of the 
institution itself and of the community it was designed 
to serve. One program m^ust suffice as an illustration. 

In 1856 Wesleyan Seminary offered the following:^ 

First Term 
Mental Arithmetic; Elocution; Rhetoric; Geometry, begun; Geog- 
raphy of the Heavens; Bookkeeping; Botany; Political Economy; 
Astronomy; Governmental Instructor. 2 

Second Term 
English Composition; Analysis of Words; Ancient Geography; 
Universal History; Geometry, completed; Trigonometry; Mental 
Philosophy; Elements of Criticism; Evidences of Christianity; 
Natural Theology. 

Third Term 
Modern Geography; History of the United States; Survey- 
ing and Navigation; Mental Philosophy; Logic; Agricultural 
Chemistry; Animal Chemistry; Analogy of Religion; Geology; 
Mineralogy. 

Every Term 

English Grammar; Analysis of Language; Written Arithmetic; 
Higher Ari theme tic; Elementary Algebra; Higher Algebra; 
Anatomy and Physiology; Natural Philosophy; Chemistry; 
Drawing, Painting, Music; Greek, Latin, French, and German. 

One readily observes from this program that the old, 
iron-clad, restrictive classical course has completely 
broken down and disappeared. The classics are offered 

1 President's report found in Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
1855-57, P- 411- At this date the seminary enrolled 235 students. Above the 
seminary, and influencing it, was the female college. This fact doubtless accounts 
for the variety and richness of program found here. Surely few of the smaller 
academies could parallel it. 

^ This last I take to mean to indicate a handbook in civics, the president 
apparently naming the textbook in lieu of describing the course offered. 



170 Public Secondary Education 

for those who desire to pursue them, but they here take 
their place on a parity with the other subjects — neither 
above nor below them. Modem languages have also 
come into full recognition. In place of a few subjects 
of study pursued for a long time the policy is here reversed. 
Here is an extensive and rich menu, offered, however, in 
small quantities. The student perforce came out of the 
seminary knowing a little about many things and not 
much about any one. The age of specialization for every 
individual — even before he passed out of the field of 
secondary education — had not yet arrived. 

Naturally, in this period of particularism, the textbooks 
in use varied greatly. Still, a few standard books are 
found in nearly every school. Among the familiar ones 
may be mentioned: Wayland's texts on Moral and 
Mental Philosophy; Paley's Evidences of Christianity, 
and his Natural Theology; Butler's Analogy; Packer's 
Natural Philosophy; Davies' mathematical series; New- 
man's Rhetoric; Agassiz's Zoology; and Fasquelle's French 
text. 

As an indication of the popularity of the various sub- 
jects, the following list of students' elections may be 
valuable. In the Young Ladies' Seminary at Monroe, 
the president reports, for the year 1850:^ "The pupils 
have pursued the following studies : Latin, 1 2 ; French, 9 ; 
Instrumental Music, 17; Drawing, 34; Vocal Music, the 
entire school;^ Algebra, 58; Geometry, 9; Chemistry, 15; 
Natural Philosophy, 25; Moral Science, 4; Physiology 
and Anatomy, 34; Arithmetic, 123; Astronomy, 20; 
Geology, 9; Grammar, 94." 

From the foregoing list, as well as from other data we 
have considered in this chapter, it is clearly manifest 

1 Report of Public Instruction, 1850, p. 79. 

2 The school enrolled at this time, about 125. 



The Academy Movement 171 

that the "elective system" of studies, in fact if not in 
name, was in full operation in many if not all of the 
academical institutions of the state even before the middle 
of the last century. Students who expected to be gradu- 
ated were, it is true, required to pursue a rather definite 
course of studies. Those, however, who had only a 
limited time at their disposal were frequently allowed to 
take up the subjects for which they were fitted, and for 
which they had an especial desire. 

Very naturally, then, we shall find that these institu- 
tions set the standards and furnished the ideals and the 
models for the public high schools that were just then 
arising. An enriched curriculum, a flexible curriculimi, 
a more or less "practical" curriculum, became the rule. 
If there was not always free choice for the pupil, there 
were at least two separate and distinct curricula open for 
his election — the Classical and the EngUsh. Sometimes 
a third, styled the Modem Language Course, was offered. 
All these were carried over into the high school. 

The academies likewise bequeathed the example of 
coeducation, if not in all, at least in many of their 
institutions. This practice, too, became the natural and 
unconscious ideal of the evolving high schools. We 
shall trace the details later. 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Rise and Development of the Union Schools 

THE third channel through which secondary education 
in Michigan was moving during the twenty years 
preceding i860 was that of the union schools. In fact, 
it is from these that the present-day high schools take 
their immediate rise and their distinctive form. While 
the branches of the imiversity and the private and denomi- 
national academies and seminaries contributed much of 
the spirit and not a little of the internal workings and 
methods of the high schools, the external shape, the admin- 
istration, and the financial support of these have been 
evolved almost wholly from the operation of principles 
that underlay and produced the tinion schools. Indeed, 
in many towns and villages in Michigan to-day the local 
high school is still recognized and spoken of as the "Union 
School" — what was originally only a department of the 
school having assumed to itself the name and essence of 
the whole. ^ 

We have already seen that the period between 1840 
and i860 was one of hesitancy and halting in matters of 
secondary education in Michigan. Indeed, there was 
no definite settled state policy respecting the question 
until about the latter date. One party or faction had 
set up one ideal, and another, another. Each sought, 
by proselyting, to rally to its support siifficient strength 
to carry through its program. 

Meantime the legislature assumed a more or less 
neutral attitude and waited to be guided by the survival 

1 1 have frequently, in my visits through Michigan, heard the high school thus 
designated. 

172 



The Rise and Development of the Union Schools 173 

of the fittest. Of course, educational statutes were en- 
acted, but few or none of them were drastic in their 
requirements or partial in their principles. The repre- 
sentatives of each school party received some recognition. 

Nevertheless, the legislature on the whole assimied a 
laissez faire demeanor. It refused to appropriate addi- 
tional money for the maintenance of the branches; it 
refused to subsidize the private schools and academies; 
and it refused to make provision for secondary education, 
directly, in any other way. But, meanwhile, the popular 
demand, silently expressed, was steadily making for free, 
secular, state-supported secondary schools. When this 
quiet growth had assumed proportions that were irre- 
sistible, the legislature and the courts came to its support 
with specific legal aids. 

In an earlier chapter we have seen that the state 
constitution declared for a system of primary schools 
to be kept up in every district for a minimimi period each 
year, and to be supported, in part at least, out of the public 
treasury. We have also called attention to the confusion 
that arose respecting the school lands and the Primary 
School Fimd, and to the abuses that followed the rise 
of the spirit of excessive democratization that reached 
its height in the fourth decade of the past century. 
So far as this last factor bore on education, its most 
serious and evil effect was the establishment of the public- 
school system with the small, independent school district 
as the unit. So distrustful were the people of that 
generation of anything bordering on the centralization 
of power, and so opposed were the settlers of Michigan, 
in particular, to the perpetuation of the earlier French 
ideas, that any thought or plan of building a school 
system on the township basis was easily and successfully 
opposed. Hence Michigan was, and in part is yet. 



174 Public Secondary Education 

bound to a system that has been very retarding, to say 
the least, in its effects. 

The sparseness of population in Michigan up to 1840 
made the district system less irritatingly felt than it 
might otherwise have been> Still, especially in the 
larger towns, the plan was not working well. For 
example, at this time Detroit, with a population of ten 
thousand, was spHt into eight separate and distinct dis- 
tricts, each with its district school and its district school 
officers.^ The condition was fast becoming intolerable. 
In 1842, therefore, the legislature came to the relief of the 
city by enacting a law consolidating the various dis- 
tricts of Detroit and providing for one school authority 
over all.^ 

This act marks the first effective step toward modi- 
fying the district-school plan. For the first time in the 
state an incorporated city or town was made the unit 
for the local administration of schools. Still, Detroit 
did not at once establish a imion school with an aca- 
demical department. In this respect she was beaten by 
several other towns. Detroit's academical department 
was not created imtil 1848.* 

Meanwhile, throughout the state, demands were being 
made for similar legislation that wotdd permit the estab- 
Hshment of imion-school districts in the larger towns. 

1 The population of the state in 1840 was 212,267. In 1838 there were only two 
chartered cities — Detroit and Monroe — and twenty-three incorporated villages 
and cowns. (Farmer's History of Detroit, pp. 740 ff.) 

2 Ibtd., p. 743. 

3 This ace, approved February 17. 1842, provided that henceforth "all schools 
organized therein (Detroit), in pursuance of this act. shall, under the direction and 
regulation of the Board of Education, be public and free to all children residing 
withm the limits thereof, between the ages of five and seventeen inclusive." It 
provided for the election of twelve school inspectors (two from each ward) who, 
together with che mayor and the recorder, were to constitute the Board of Education 
for the entire city. The same law authorized the common council of Detroit to 
assess and levy each year for school purposes a tax upon all real and personal 
jjroperty in the city up to the amount of one dollar per child of school age. {Joint 
Documents, 1851, No. 70 p. 491-) 

4 At first there were two grades — a primary and a middle — in each ward. 
Later there were six primary and three middle in the whole city. In 1848 there were 
thirteen primary and four middle schools. (Farmer's History of Detroit, p. 743.) 



The Rise mid Development of the Union Schools 175 

What was good for Detroit was likewise good, it was 
argued, for all villages and towns of any considerable 
size. Not only would a single district with a single school 
and a single set of officers be vastly more economical to 
the people of the commimity, but it would permit the 
carrying on of a school vastly more efficient. In a imion 
district better salaries could be paid, better teachers 
secured, and enthusiasm of numbers could be generated. 
The tinion school would also permit the grading of pupils 
according to their attainments, and thus bring greater 
zest and emulation into the classroom, where all would 
be nearly equal. 

Grading would also permit organizing the work on the 
departmental plan, and would thus enable teachers to 
devote their time to the particular subjects for which 
they were best prepared, and for which they had a natural 
aptitude. 

These were the arguments laid before the legislature 
by the friends of the imion schools. 

In response to this appeal the legislature in 1843 
enacted another law which gave to the local officers per- 
missive authority to organize union schools anywhere. 
The important sections of that law read as follows:^ 

"Whenever the board of inspectors of any township 
shall deem that the interests of any of the schools will be 
best promoted by so doing, they may form a single dis- 
trict out of any two or more districts therein and classify 
the pupils in such districts into two or more classes, 
according to their proficiency and advancement in learn- 
ing, and require that such pupils be taught in distinct 
schools or departments as classified by them; and such 
district may have the same nimiber of schoolhouses, if 

1 These are sections 92 and 93 of the compiled laws of 1846. See Joint Docu- 
ments, 1851, p. 397. 



176 Public Secondary Education 

necessary, and raise the same amount of taxes which 
the original districts forming the same could raise if not 
imited." 

The inspectors were also authorized "on the appli- 
cation of the district board of any district, to classify 
the pupils therein in the manner prescribed in the pre- 
ceding section, and require that such pupils be taught 
in distinct departments, whenever they shall judge that 
the interest of the school will be best promoted thereby." ^ 

Amendments to this law in the next year or so author- 
ized any district having more than a htmdred pupils of 
school age ^ to enlarge its board of trustees to seven mem- 
bers, provided two-thirds of the voters at any annual 
meeting so decided. The district board was also given 
power to "graduate the price of tuition according to the 
studies pursued by the scholars respectively." ^ 

From the above sections it is to be observed that, while 
graded schools are here provided, they are in no sense free 
public schools. A tuition or "rate" was authorized in 
every district* to be collected from the residents of the 
district, as well as from the non-resident students attend- 
ing that school. Nothing, however, is stated in the law 
respecting the scope of the work to be offered in these 
schools. That was left wholly to local settlement. 

Under the original law some little advance apparently 
was made by the more progressive inspectors, but no 
really full-fledged graded school issued. Superintendent 
Comstock, through his reports of 1844 and 1845, gave 
his support to the movement and urged immediate action 
by the different towns. "The consolidation of districts 
in our cities and rising villages is highly desirable." said 

1 Section 93 of the same compiled laws. 

2 The school age was now from four to eighteen. 

3 Amendment to Section 93. (See Joint Documents, 1851, p. 398.) 

4 Detroit was exempt from this law. Her schools were free by the law of 1842. 



The Rise and Development of the Union Schools 177 

he in his report of 1845.^ "These graduated schools," 
he continued, "would obviate the necessity of select 
seminaries. Education obtained in these is always more 
expensive than it would be if imparted in the graduated 
school . . . The necessity of select schools is foimded 
in the imperfect character of the primary schools. Ele- 
vate these, and the select schools will be superseded." 

This quotation leaves no doubt as to which party 
Mr. Comstock favored in the three-cornered fight for 
control of the secondary schools of Michigan. 

In a similar way. Superintendent Mayhew, in his 
report for 1848, urges upon boards the desirability of 
organizing their schools imder the provisions of the 
revised law. "A considerable number of districts have 
already availed themselves of this provision," said he, 
"and several large and commodious Union School houses 
have been built in which schools are in successful opera- 
tion. Other similar houses are now in process of erection 
and taxes have been voted in other cases with reference 
to building another season." "In that school [that is, 
the union school] are combined all the advantages of the 
well conducted common school, the academy for yoimg 
gentlemen and the seminary for young ladies. Children 
may there commence with the alphabet and pass from 
one grade to another imtil, on leaving the school, they are 
prepared to enter any college or University in the United 
States." "Union schools should be established at the 
earliest practicable period, in every coimty of this state, 
and in all the principal villages, in which students may 
qualify themselves for the University. Union schools 
constitute the only reliable connecting link between the 
primary school and the State University."^ 

^ Joint Documents, 1851, p. 4S7. 

2 Report of 1848, Joint Documents, 1851, p. 458. 

13 



178 Public Secondary Education 

Mr. Mayhew then adds a list of the advantages such 
schools possess. I content myself with merely giving his 
main headings without his detailed arguments. These are : 

1. They are open to all and embrace a more extensive and com- 

plete course of study than otherwise would be practicable. 

2. They may be made better than either the common or the 

select schools. 

3. They are cheaper than any other schools. 

4. They are democratic institutions. 

5. They afford a good substitute for normal schools or teachers' 

seminaries. 

6. They perform the office of a preparatory school for colleges. 

Although Mr. Mayhew was ambitious to see these 
schools made preparatory schools for colleges and the 
universities, apparently, at the time he wrote, this view 
was shared by few. Rather, the iinion school was gen- 
erally expected to take the place of the local academy 
and to give the youth of the neighborhood a good foun- 
dation in the elementary and secondary subjects that 
wotild fit them for their places in the active affairs of the 
commtmity, and would train them in moral, religious, and 
social principles. 

Probably the first village to organize a union school 
under the law of 1843 was Jones ville, in 1845, though the 
school was not opened and in operation imtil two or three 
years later. From this date the more important towns of 
the state, one by one, took the advanced step and con- 
verted their ungraded schools into imion or graded schools. 

There was, of course, at this time, no fixed or ideal 
standard to which the various schools sought to approxi- 
mate themselves. Each community went its own way 
and established a school that seemed good in its own eyes 
and adapted to the local needs. Nevertheless, the dif- 
ferences of a homogeneous people are usually more 
superficial than real. There was, therefore, almost of 



The Rise and Development of the Union Schools 179 

necessity, a close agreement among all these schools, — in 
aim, organization, administration, programs of study, 
equipment, textbooks, internal workings, methods, and 
results. Obviously, in a book of this kind, it is impos- 
sible and imdesirable to deal, in a detailed way, with 
the characteristics of any one school. We shall have 
to content ourselves with deducing general principles and 
illustrating these with a few concrete facts. 

Almost all these tmion schools were organized into two, 
three, four, or five different departments under different 
names. The program of studies ranged from the merest 
elements of knowledge up to, and including, subjects 
now found only in the colleges and universities. Hence 
the divisions or departments were given names suggestive 
of the grade of work included. The earlier schools 
usually had four departments, though sometimes five. 
The later more commonly classified the work into three 
divisions. All had a primary department, and many had 
an academical department. Between these two extremes 
were found the secondary, the intermediate, and the gram- 
mar departments, and other designated departments.^ 

In some schools the academical department was made 
to include the grammar department and the high school. 
The full course in the perfectly organized schools was 
usually eleven or twelve years in length, three years 
being devoted to each of the four common departments: 
primary, intermediate, grammar, and higher depart- 
ments. Later it was more usual to find the primary, 
grammar, and high departments, with four years devoted 
to each. 

1 The following illustrations will show the variety of usage: (a) Jonesville had 
primary, secondary, grammar, and higher departments; (6) Monroe had the same 
designations; (c) Niles had ist primary, 2d primary, intermediate, grammar, and 
high; (d) Plymouth had ist department, 2d department, and 3d department; 
(e) St. Clair had primary, secondary, intermediate, and higher; (J) Sturgis had 
primary, secondary, third department, and high school ; (g) Ypsilanti had primary, 
secondary, grammar, and academical. 



i8o Public Secondary Education 

The year was divided into three or four terms and con- 
sisted usually of forty or more weeks.^ The school day 
was ordinarily six hours in length, but there was no 
uniformity as to just what six hours. ^ At the outset 
there was usually but one school building in the town, 
and this accommodated all grades.^ As the town grew 
the main or union school building continued to be used 
for the upper departments, and ward buildings were 
erected for the primary departments. As the imion 
school building became more and more overcrowded, one 
grade after another was forced out and was quartered 
in the ward buildings, imtil, in time, by this process of 
division, the tmion building was often given over entirely 
to the academical or high-school department. 

Up to 1856, however, and perhaps later, there was in 
Michigan no true high school in the sense of an institution 
of secondary learning set apart from the middle or grade 
school and offering advanced education only."* Indeed, 
the true high-school period did not begin in Michigan 
until the passage of the law of 1859. 

Just as there was a division and a separation of grades 
in separate buildings, so there gradually developed a 
differentiation of functions among the teachers. Before 
the union-school era each district had its one teacher who 
was administrator, teacher, truant officer, clerk, and 
j anitor — a veritable j ack-of -all - trades . With the division 
of the school into grades there was usually one head 
master, or principal, with one or more teaching assist- 
ants. With the removal of the primary department from 
the main building there arose the office (though for a 

1 Of the twenty-seven schools reporting in 1859, fourteen had 40 weeks of school ; 
one had 41; eight had 42; one had 43; and two had 44. One only had fewer than 
40 weeks. This was Cassopolis, with 36. (See Report of Public Instruction, i8S9. 
p. 234.) 

2 Report of Detroit School. {Report, 1850, p. 156.) 

3 Exception must of course be made of the larger towns. 
i Report, 1855-57. p. S2. 



The Rise and Development of the Union Schools i8i 

time, to be sure, unrecognized by title) of superintendent. 
This function still fell to the lot of the head of the aca- 
demical department, who at first was designated "Prin- 
cipal of the Schools."^ This process was repeated when 
the grammar department was set off from the higher or 
academical department, and not infrequently one of the 
assistant teachers was designated as assistant to the 
principal, having charge of the grammar department. 

As the evolution went on the term "principal" came to 
denote the head master or head mistress of any building or 
department. This practice then necessitated the employ- 
ment of a new title to distinguish the highest adminis- 
trative official of the whole system, and consequently 
there arose the designation "Superintendent of Schools." 

Thus, here as elsewhere in modern life, a complexity of 
duties led to a division of labor, a continuous differen- 
tiation of fimction, and the creation of a hierarchy of 
authority. 

To meet the needs of the new type of schools most 
towns and cities were forced to erect new school buildings, 
and these became the pride and boast of the commimity. 
Copied somewhat closely from the academies, these 
structures occupied the choicest available plot of ground 
in the town, and, where possible, stood upon a command- 
ing hill in the midst of a natural grove. The first buildings 
were often only two stories in height ; the later ones were, 
with few exceptions, three stories. Although land was 
cheap and there was an abundance of room to build out 
laterally, the architects of the day would have none of 
that style. Two or three flights of steep stairways 
seem to have been regarded as essential for any model 
union-school building, and not infrequently one or two 

1 Oftentimes, too, the academical department was spoken of as the principal's 

deiJartment. 



1 82 Public Secondary Education 

other flights led still higher to the tower and the belfry. 
Another usually led down into a basement.^ The record, 
"an ample and spacious building 60 ft. long by 40 ft. 
wide, and three stories in height," is a familiar one in the 
reports of these schools. 

Salaries, as one might expect, were low, — shamefully 
and criminally low. If the total expense of conducting 
the entire school for a year averaged much over two hun- 
dred and fifty or three hundred dollars for the teachers 
employed, the school board was thought needlessly 
extravagant. Here are a few illustrations taken from 
the reports of 1859: 

No. OF 

Town Teachers Pay 

Almont 2 $ g and $ 4 per week, respectively 

Ann Arbor 3 $ 750 per year, collectively 

Battle Creek 10 3i370 per year, collectively 

Bay City 2 750 per year, collectively 

Cassopolis 3 740 per year, collectively 

Charlotte 3 960 per year, collectively 

Coldwater 8 2,316 per year, collectively 

Eaton Rapids 3 694 per year, collectively 

Flint 6 2,105 per year, collectively 

Niles 9 3i5oo per year, collectively 

Ypsilanti 17 5,470 per year, collectively 

When one recalls that the principal's salary was con- 
siderably larger than that of his assistants, one can well 
guess how slimly these latter fared. Indeed, a salary of 
one hundred seventy-five to two hundred dollars for 
a primary teacher, and two hundred to three himdred 

1 There are several of these old union-school buildings still standing throughout 
the state, and the material conditions in some are as bad as the above statement 
would indicate. The author recalls a visit to one such school two or three years 
ago in which the high-school students occupied the third floor, seventy-two steps 
above the ground. Besides being forced to ascend and descend these stairs four 
times a day at least, many students in addition went up into the tower twice each 
day, and down into the basement once each day to attend classes held there. If 
any went outside the building at recess there were four additional trips up and 
down the seventy-two steps. In addition to the danger to physical health in 
general, the building was a veritable firetrap. Fortunately, the present generation 
is rapidly abandoning this type of building. 



The Rise and Development of the Union Schools 183 

for an intermediate teacher, was the ruling scale.^ 
The programs of studies in these schools, as we have 
already hinted, varied greatly with the pride and ambi- 
tion of the community and the funds at the disposal of the 
board. There was no close articulation between the dif- 
ferent departments in any school. Admission to the 
academic or high-school department from the grammar- 
school department was in these earlier schools upon 
examination, and examination only.^ This included, 
usually, arithmetic, grammar, geography, reading, pen- 
manship, composition, and declamation.^ Sometimes 
also, as at Adrian, algebra, physiology, book-keeping or 
drawing, and United States history were required. 

The program of studies in the academical or high-school 
department was usually, from the first, divided into two 
courses — the English and the Classical. Every school 
offered the English course, and the larger and more 
ambitious schools had both. One or two illustrative 
programs must suffice for our purpose. 

In 1858 the English course in the Ann Arbor High 
School was as follows: 

First Half Year: Elementary Algebra; Elementary Composi- 
tion; Physiology. 

Second Half Year: Davies' University Arithmetic; English 
Grammar; Physical Geography. 

Third Half Year: Geometry; Rhetoric; History. 

Fourth Half Year: Geometry (finished); Natural History; 
English Literature; Elements of Criticism; History. 

Fifth Half Year: Olmstead's Natural Philosophy; Mental 
Philosophy; Chemistry; Geology. 

Sixth Half Year: Natural Philosophy (finished) ; Botany; Reviews. 

iln 1858 Flint paid her teachers as follows: Principal, $800; first assistant, $260: 
second assistant, $220; teachers of intermediate department, §240; two teachers of 
primary department, S200 each. {Reports, 1858, p. 458.) This same year the 
salaries m the Detroit schools ranged from $200 to $900. (Ibid., p. 451.) In 
Grand Rapids salaries were from S220 to Si, 000. {Ibid., p. 463.) 

2 At least, I have found no records to the contrary. 

3 Report of Ann Arbor, for example, in Report of Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, 1858. 



184 Public Secondary Education 

In addition to the above there was offered, as optional 
subjects, a two years' course in French and in German.^ 

The Classical Course for the same school for this year 
was: 

In Latin: Harkness' First Latin Book; Latin Reader; Caesar; 
Cicero's Select Orations; Arnold's Latin Prose Composition; and 
Vergil. 

/w Greek: Kuehner's Greek Grammar and Exercises; Greek 
Reader or Anabasis; Arnold's Greek Prose Composition; Review. 2 

A few years earlier than this Battle Creek offered the 
following program:* 

First Year 

First Term: Arithmetic; English Grammar; Physical Geography; 
Latin ; French. 

Second Term: Algebra; English Language; Physical Geography; 
Latin; French. 

Third Term: Algebra; Rhetoric and English Literature; Book- 
keeping; Latin; French. Reading and Spelling throughout the 
the year. 

Second Year 

First Term: Geometry; Rhetoric and English Literature; 
Chemistry; Latin; French; Greek; German. 

Second Term: Geometry and Trigonometry; Chemistry; Natural 
Philosophy; Latin; French; Greek; German. 

Third Term: Trigonometry and Surveymg ; Physiology; Botany; 
Latin; French; Greek; German. 

Third Year 

First Term: Botany; History; Zoology; Latin; French; Greek; 
German. 

Second Term: History; Astronomy; Mental Philosophy; Latin; 
French; Greek; German; Drawing. 

Third Term: Political Economy; Moral Philosophy; Geology; 
Latin; French; Greek; German; Drawing. Declamations, Com- 
positions, etc., throughout the year. 

lAt the time of the report thirty-four were pursuing the study of French, and 
twelve of German. {Report, 1858, p. 440.) 

2 At this time fifty-five were studying Latin and eighteen Greek. 

3 Report, 1852, p. 587. 



The Rise and Development of the Union Schools 185 

The above programs suggest the scope and variety of 
work offered in the average school of the stronger types. 
Apparently a pupil was expected at the outset of his 
high-school career to select either the English or the 
Classical Course and to continue in it without break to 
the end. The only real flexibility was ioxmd in the 
options allowed in the modern languages.^ 

In some schools, however, a decided tendency is 
observed to incorporate in the high-school program of 
studies subjects that are now usually confined to the 
grammar school. In still others, advanced subjects 
that approach the courses of the university were foimd. 
Grand Rapids, for example, in 1858 offered this course 
in its higher department: Spelling, reading, penmanship, 
geography, grammar, mental arithmetic, written arith- 
metic, history, algebra, geometry, book-keeping, science 
of government, rhetoric, physiology, natural philosophy, 
astronomy, French, Latin, composition, and declamation.^ 

At this same time Ypsilanti offered this rich program 
in its academical department : Elocutionary reading, uni^ 
versity arithmetic, algebra and Bourdon,^ geometry and 
trigonometry, grammar, English analysis, ancient and 
modem history, natural philosophy, logic, rhetoric, ele- 
ments of criticism, evidences of Christianity, original and 
selected declamations and compositions, Latin, Greek, 
French, German, and music. The last five were optional. 

lUntil 1859 no classical studies were taught in any of the Detroit schools, 
although the president reported in 1858 that their program of studies covered "the 
whole range of elementary instruction from ABC up to Trigonometry." (Report, 
1858. p. 451.) 

2 Report, 1858, p. 46s. 

3 Louis Pierre Marie Bourdon (1799-1854), a French mathematician, was the 
author of several published mathematical works, among them: Elements d' 
Algebre (1815); Elements d' Arilhmelique (1821); Application de I'Algtbre a la 
Geometric (1824); Trigonometrie rectilique et sperique (1854). Bourdon's works 
were adapted by Professor Davies, of West Point, and were extensively used in 
the United States. School authorities in arranging their courses of study often 
misused the word Bourdon, so that now it is difhcult to decide whether his algebra, 
his geometry, or his transitional book. Applications of Algebra to Geometry, is 
meant. The context seems to imply that the last-mentioned book is intended. 



1 86 Public Secondary Education 

Jonesville also shows a liberal spirit in this sentence: 
"No regular course of study," says the report, "has 
been prescribed. We have classes in Greek, Latin, 
French, German languages. Philosophy, Chemistry, 
Algebra, Geometry, Physiology, Astronomy, Botany, and 
in all the Common English Branches."^ 

All these programs show clearly the influence of the 
academy movement on the subjects of study. Prescribed 
courses were everywhere going out, and a principle of a 
more or less free choice was coming in. We must from 
now on expect to see the pendulum swinging more and 
more away from the traditional standards and toward a 
more modem ideal. We shall first find blazed in the 
forest of subjects numerous straight and narrow paths. 
Upon some one of these each and every pupil must enter, 
and, having once started, must persevere to the end or 
give up all attempt to go through. Again, later, we shall 
find that this ideal did not prove acceptable, and a more 
liberal principle was adopted. The pupil was now 
permitted to cross over from one course to another, 
provided he did so at certain specifically prescribed points. 
Still once more, we shall see, satisfactory conditions were 
not secured, and a modified form of older standards was set 
up. Thus society and the schools make progress by cutting 
and trying, and ceaselessly making over past experiences. 

In these early union schools there was little or no 
apparatus to serve as pedagogical aids, nor any school 
Hbraries of any considerable size or significance.^ The 

1 Report, 1858, p. 467. 

2 Jonesville seems to have had the best supply of apparatus. It consisted of 
"Chemical Apparatus and full sets of large Geographical, Astronomical, and 
Physiological Maps, the whole costing $200." (Report, 1858, p. 467-) 

Grand Rapids at the same time reported the following equipment : One terrestrial 
globe at $12; one celestial globe at S12; one tellurion at SB; one telescope at S20; 
one microscope at $4.50; one horseshoe magnet at $4; one set of mechanical powers 
at $12; one set of cubical blocks at $1.50 Four sets outline maps, at S8 to S32; 
one air pump at $16. This gives a total supply of thirteen pieces with a total value 
of $122. (Report, 1858, p. 463.) Most of the other schools reported no apparatus 
and no libraries. 



The Rise and Development of the Union Schools 187 

majority of teachers were women, though as a rule the 
principal was a man, and usually a college or academy 
graduate. Coeducation existed in every school, and to the 
minds of the majority of principals was highly desirable 
and to be recommended for continuance. A few schools 
— the older, larger, or better ones — declared that 
their academical departments had prepared youths for 
college or university, but for the most part the reports 
avow no such honor and distinction. In almost every 
town which reported in 1858 a part, at least, of the expense 
of the school was still being raised by a rate bill.^ How- 
ever, public sentiment was fast rising against the practice, 
and in many towns the amounts thus collected were only 
nominal. People began to feel with Superintendent 
Gregory that "it were a cruel mockery for the state to 
proclaim a free university to its youth and at the same 
time to remind them they can reach it only by a heavy 
preliminary expense."^ 

As in the academies, there was no imiformity in text- 
books used in these early union schools. The law of the 
state had, from the beginning, required the Superintendent 
of Public Instruction to recommend books for use in the 
various schools, but their adoption was not made man- 
datory. Still, a few books had wide use. Among these 
may be mentioned McGuffey's Readers, Davies' mathe- 
matical texts, Willard's histories, Parker's Aids to English 
Composition, and his Natural Philosophy; and Dr. Watts' 
Improvement of the Mind. 

This, then, was the mode of development of the union 
schools of Michigan, and these were their general char- 
acteristics and conditions in the sixth decade of the past 
century. Directly out of these schools, as we have already 

1 Detroit, Ann Arbor, Fenton, and one or two other towns declared that the 
English course in their schools was free to students of their own districts. 

2 Superintendent Gregory in his Report for 1859, p. 332. 



1 88 Public Secondary Education 

stated, grew the present-day high schools of the state. 
The rise and development of those institutions will be 
left to the succeeding chapter. Not until the law of 
February 14, 1859, can the true high-school period in 
Michigan be said to have begun. Up to that date no 
separation of the school statistics was made by the state 
authorities, so that it is difficult to present accurately 
the detailed facts of their immediate progenitors. 

In 1859 there were, however, fifty-eight graded or union 
districts in the state. Many of these, of course, had no 
academical or higher department whatever; others had 
only the beginnings of one. 

In response to circulars sent out by the Educational 
Department of Michigan in 1859, twenty-seven cities 
and towns reported on the status of their imion schools. 
At the end of this chapter will be found a list of these 
schools, together with the most interesting data gleaned 
from the replies to the circular mentioned. All but eight 
of the twenty-seven schools reported absolutely free tui- 
tion for i860, though the law abolishing the rate bill 
did not pass until July 3, 1869.^ 

Meanwhile, in 1850, the constitution of the state was 
revised, but no changes essential to our study were made 
therein, save that the legislature was ordered, within five 
years, to provide for establishing a system of primary 
schools in which instruction, without any charge for 
tuition, was to be given at least three months in every 
year in every district in the state, and all instruction was 
to be in the English language.^ We shall later see the 
trouble this last sentence caused. 

Union schools, of course, continued to exist after 1859, 

1 It may be interesting to note that in this same year the University of Michigan 
reported having fifteen professors, three assistant professors, three instructors, one 
assistant, and 430 students. (Regents' report, 1859, in School Reports for that 
year. Document No. 5, p. 74.) 

2 Section 4 of Article XIII of the Constitution of Michigan, as drawn in 1850. 



The Rise and Development oj the Union Schools 189 



and are to-day important institutions in Michigan. For 
the purposes of this book, however, we have traced their 
history as far as we need. We shall now turn to the 
high school, considered in its own right. 

Table of Union Schools Reporting in 1859 1 



Town 



Adrian 

Almont , 

Ann Arbor City 

Ann Arbor, Lower Town 

Bay City 

Battle Creek 

Cassopolis 

Charlotte 

Clinton 

Coldwater 

Dexter 

Dowagiac 

Eaton Rapids 

East Saginaw 

Fentonville 

Flint 

Jonesville 

Kalamazoo 

Lansing, Lower Town . . 
Lansing, Middle Town. . 

Monroe 

Niles 

Plymouth 

St. Clair 

Sturgis 

Tecumseh 

Ypsilanti 



No. 
Attend- 
ing 



II78 
200 

1325 
200 

170 

183 
208 
619 
300 

245 
220 

367 
229 

340 
351 
941 
328 
320 
490 
450 
220 
540 
237 
500 
1200 



No. 
Teachers 



15 

3 
18 

3 
2 

ID 

3 
3 
4 
9 
5 
4 
3 
5 
3 
6 

5 
16 

3 

4 



3 
6 

4 

9 

17 



Weeks 

OF 

School 



40 
42 
40 
42 
40 
42 
36 
42 
40 
42 
44 
42 
40 
42 
40 
40 
40 
40 
40 
40 

41 
40 
42 
40 

44 
40 

43 



Date of 
Organiza- 
tion 

1849 

1859 
1856 
1854 
1854 
1847 
1857 
1859 
1859 
1853 
1856 

1857 
1853 
1853 
1853 
1846 
1847 

1859 
1852 
1857 
1859 
1856 
1853 
1853 
1855 
1852 
1849 



1 Report, 1859, p. 234. There were of course many other flourishing union 
schools with academical departments besides these that reported. Detroit, for 
example, had four union schools at this time, with at least one that gave instruction 
of an academical grade. 



CHAPTER IX 

The High-School Era 

THE true high-school era in Michigan began Febru- 
ary 14, 1859.^ On this date the governor approved 
a legislative act which authorized graded-school districts 
to establish academical or high-school departments in 
their imion schools. This date is therefore a turning 
point in the history of secondary education in the state. 

Academic departments, it is true, had developed in 
many union schools long before this time, but they had 
no certain and specific legal status. They were merely 
the natural product of the conditions of the age. Under 
the new law the way was opened for the establishment 
and expansion of these secondary schools imder more 
favorable and permanent conditions. 

From this date the zeal and enthusiasm for public 
high schools — particularly in the cities and larger 
villages — was amazing. Communities vied with each 
other in taxing themselves for building sites and buildings, 
and in providing a course of instruction that should be 
complete from bottom to top. The high school speedily 

1 The important sections of this law read: "Any district containing more than 
200 children between the ages of four and eighteen years may elect a District Board 
consisting of six Trustees: Provided, the District shall so determine at an annual 
meeting." (Sec. 147, Laws of 1859, p. 218.) Section 149 reads: "Said Trustees 
shall have power to classify and grade the scholars in such District and to cause 
them to be taught in such schools or departments as they may deem expedient; to 
establish in said District a High School when ordered by a vote of the district, 
at any annual meeting, and to determine the qualifications of admission to such 
school and the prices to be paid for tuition or any branches taught therein, etc." 
(Laws of 1859, p. 219.) Section 150 gives the district the right to "vote at each 
annual meeting such sums to be raised by tax upon the taxable property of the 
District as may be required to maintain the several schools thereof for the year." 
Section 151 says: "Any two or more contiguous districts may unite to form a 
single district for the purpose of establishing Graded or High Schools under the 
provisions of this act whenever the said districts shall severally by a two-thirds 
vote of the legal voters attending the annual meeting agree thereto." 

190 



The High-School Era 191 

took the place, in the popular mind, of the old academies, 
and this type of institution, as we have seen, was in 
large measure abandoned to its fate. 

There were, of course, for a number of years after this, 
whole communities, and a greater or smaller constituency 
of individuals in nearly every community, that did not 
share the optimism or the satisfaction of the majority. 
To these the high school was a needless burden upon the 
taxpayers; an attempt to strain after the impracticable 
and useless; an aristocratic institution, designed and 
established for the aristocracy, approved by the aris- 
tocracy, and made up of the aristocracy. Among these 
was repeated the perennial falsehood: "What was good 
enough for father and mother is good enough for the 
children." Indeed, Superintendent Gregory in his report 
for 1859 already recognized the dangers that beset the 
new type of school when he declared: "There is no 
branch of our educational system that awakens so much 
hope and occasions so much solicitude as the so-called 
union schools."^ 

However, as already stated, the establishment and 
expansion of the public high school went on apace. In 
1859 there were in Michigan 3,968 school districts. Of 
these only fifty were organized into graded districts; 
and of these fifty not all included true academic depart- 
ments.2 Within twenty years, however, these figures 
had been enormously augmented. Naturally the events 
connected with the Civil War temporarily checked the 
advance of all schools — the high school included — but 
Michigan rapidly recovered from the depression incident 
to that struggle, and the passion for education surged 

1 Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1859, p. 25. While the sentence 
includes a consideration of the lower grades as well as the high school, it is obvious 
that the thought has reference primarily to the higher or academical departments 
of the union school. 

2 Ibid., p. 24, 



192 Public Secondary Education 

onward again. The following table shows the growth 
of high schools, by years, down to 1877.^ 



Date 


Number 

OF High Schools 

Established 


Date 


Number 

OF High Schools 

Established 


1858 


2l2 


1868 


12 


1859 


6 


1869 


10 


i860 


4 


1870 


6 


1861 


4 


1871 


8 


1862 


2 


1872 


4 


1863 


5 


1873 


6 


1864 


3 


1874 


3 


1865 


4 


1875 





1866 


II 


1876 





1862: 


15 


1877 



Total 124 



Thus the period from 1866 to 1873 was the time of most 
phenomenal advancement in the establishment of high 
schools in Michigan. By the end of that time practically 
every city in the state contained an institution of this 
kind. From the cities the movement spread into the 
larger towns and thence to the smaller villages. As the 
definition of a high school became more and more inclu- 
sive, commiuiities that at the beginning of this era felt 
themselves unable or indisposed to meet the standard, 
began to aspire to schools of this rank. Hence, even 
though the cities were already provided, the high-school 
movement continued to develop. Many of the smaller 
schools, it is true, make no attempt to provide a full 
college-preparatory program of studies, or even to offer 
a full four years' high-school course. Many of them 
provide only three years of study beyond the eighth 

1 Data taken from Reports of Superintendents of Public Instruction, 1873 to 1877, 
Tables of Statistics. After 1877 no record seems to have been kept of these data, 
though of course many other high schools have been established since then. 

2 These figures include all high schools established previous to 1859 in 
connection with the union schools. 



The High-School Era 193 

grade; others offer only two years, and still others but 
one year. Nevertheless, each little community insists 
that honor shall be given where honor is due, and there- 
fore cherishes the name "high school" whenever the 
facts offer the least opportunity to employ the term with 
a modicimi of truthfulness.^ 

In 1874 the agitation and alarm caused by the enemies 
of the public high schools reached their climax, but were 
soon effectively and permanently checked by two judicial 
decisions, handed down this same year. These were the 
judgments rendered in the now famous Kalamazoo High 
School case, and, so far as the State of Michigan was 
concerned, they forever settled the legal status of public 
schools of secondary grade. 

For some years the claim had been made by the oppo- 
nents of the high schools that nothing but primary instruc- 
tion could legally be given in any of the common schools 
of the state. The contention was based upon alleged 
constitutional provisions, upon legislative enactments, 
and upon public policy. At an early date, it was argued, 
the legislature had estabHshed the Primary School Interest 
Fund, and had inviolably dedicated it to the use of 
the common schools. Indeed, the constitution had it- 
self incorporated the idea into fundamental law.^ The 
common schools did not include high schools. Secondary 
education was a recognized part of superior education, 
and for this the University Fimd and other special funds 
had been set apart.^ In fact, imtil 1846 or later the 

1 The Report of the Superintendent of PuUic Instruction, 1914. gives a list of 105 
incorporated cities and 279 incorporated villages possessing high schools. (Report, 
1914, pp. 180 #.) 

2 Constitution of 1830, Article XIII, Section 2. 

3 Section 18 of Act of 1851 reads: "As soon as the income of the University 
interest fund will admit, it shall be the duty of the Board of Regents to organize 
and establish branches of the University, one at least in each judicial circuit or 
district of the state, and to establish all needful rules and regulations for the 
government of the same. They shall not give to any such branch the right of 
conferring degrees, nor appropriate a sum exceeding $1,500 in any one year for 
the support of any such branch." 

14 



194 Public Secondary Education 

support of many of the secondary schools had always come, 
in part, from the University Fund, and the administra- 
tion of these schools had been looked upon as a function 
of the regents. To attempt, therefore, to appropriate 
moneys from the Common School Fimd to the use of the 
high school was a diversion of resources and hence was 
unconstitutional. 

Moreover, it was urged, any public primary school 
giving instruction in a foreign language was infringing 
upon the provisions of Section 4 of Article XIII of the 
State Constitution,^ and therefore that the law of Feb- 
ruary 14, 1859, was null and void, since it authorized 
schools contrary to the fundamental law. In the sen- 
tence, "all instruction shall be conducted in the English 
language," the opponents of the high school felt they had 
a just warrant for banishing from the schools Greek and 
Latin, French and German. But a professed secondary 
school without those languages would, at that time, have 
been regarded as no high school at all. Hence, it was 
hoped, by driving out the study of foreign languages the 
high school itself would be driven out. 

There were other contentions made that need not here 
be considered.^ 

In order to secure a definite judicial decision upon the 
points of law in dispute, a friendly suit was instituted 
before the ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Michigan. 
The case was called in the name of Charles E. Stuart 
et al. versus School District No. i of Kalamazoo et at., and 

1 This section reads: "The legislature shall within five years from the adoption 
of this constitution, provide for and establish a system of primary schools, whereby 
a school shall be kept without charge for tuition at least three months in each year 
in every school district in the state, and all instruction in said school shall be 
conducted in the English language." 

2 For example, it was also denied that moneys could legally be raised by taxation 
to pay the salary of a school superintendent. This contention was based on that 
section of the law that imposed upon boards of education the right and duty to 
grade the school, appoint teachers, select textbooks, determine the course of study, 
the qualifications for admission, the rate of tuition, and similar powers. 



The High-School Era ipS 

in it the plaintiffs prayed the court to issue orders restrain- 
ing the school officials from imposing and collecting taxes 
for the support of the local high school or for the pay- 
ment of the salary of the school superintendent. 
The case was tried before Judge Charles R. Brown, who 
at its conclusion rendered a judgment adverse to the 
petitioners.^ 

In arriving at his opinion Judge Brown entered at some 
length into the history of the public schools of Michigan, 
called attention to the sections of law that bore upon the 
case and the obvious intent of the framers of those laws, 
and summed up his judgment by dismissing the suit. 
Respecting the constitutional provision, Mr. Brown held 
that the clause requiring the legislature to establish a 
system of primary schools did not in any way limit the 
power of the legislature to that duty, but left it free like- 
wise to provide other schools at its pleasure. Moreover, 
the constitutional clause requiring all schools to be con- 
ducted in the EngHsh language, he held, signified only 
that the general instruction given should not be com- 
municated in a foreign language, but that it did not pre- 
clude teaching foreign languages in the schools if the 
officials so voted.2 

On appeal, the case was at once carried before the 
Supreme Court of Michigan, by which a decision was 
rendered in July of that same year, sustaining the lower 
court in every essential particular.^ The judgment of 
the court was written by Hon. Thomas Cooley, one of 
Michigan's eminent jurists, and the opinion carried au- 
thority far beyond the borders of the commonwealth. 
The opinion was not only a masterpiece of legal analysis 

1 The decision was rendered February 9, 1874. 

2 A full report of this judgment may be found in Report of Supeyintsndmt of 
Public Instruciion for Michigan, 1873, pp. 399 ff. 

3 For full report, see Report of Superintendent of Public Instruciion, l874i 
pp. 409/. 



196 Public Secondary Education 

and of interpretation, but it was also a model of English 
diction and rhetoric, and contained withal a most lucid 
and terse sketch of the development of the school system 
in the territory and state. Mr. Cooley therefrom con- 
cluded that the "general state policy" had, from 18 17 
down, "been uninterruptedly and imiformly in the direc- 
tion of free schools in which education, and, at their op- 
tion, the elements of classical education, might be brought 
within the reach of all the children of the state." 

The effect of the decision was greatly to strengthen the 
high schools that had already been established and to 
encourage other and smaller commimities to plan similar 
institutions. 

Not only, however, were high schools as institutions 
enormously increasing in numbers during the era under 
consideration, but the nimiber of pupils availing them- 
selves of the opportunities afforded by these schools 
was also vastly increased. Each year saw larger and 
larger enrollments in nearly every school. Buildings 
which had been erected but a few years before were found 
inadequate to accommodate the throngs. Rooms that 
were designed for grade pupils were one by one appro- 
priated to the use of the high school, and other quarters 
were provided for the members thus dispossessed. In- 
deed, how to anticipate the growing needs for high-school 
facilities and to provide for them became an almost 
annual problem for boards of education and superinten- 
dents from one end of the state to the other. 

Doubtless several causes contributed to produce these 
conditions. Among these was the rapid development 
of cities and towns in the state, and the continuous trend 
of the rural population toward these centers of industry. 
The rise of manufacturing institutions and the develop- 
ment of the railroads — and more recently of electric 



The High-School Era 197 

roads — also helped to knit the people together and to 
stimulate a desire for enlarged educational advantages. 
Likewise, too, the increased personal wealth of thrifty 
families and the accompanying social and cultural aspira- 
tions they had for their children bore directly upon the 
situation. But above and beyond all of these causal 
factors was another that has worked with a mightily 
potent influence throughout its history. This power was 
the University of Michigan. 

We have seen in our earlier chapters that education in 
Michigan developed pretty largely from the top down- 
ward. That is to say, from early territorial days higher 
education received the first attention, both in theory and 
in practice. The hold that the university acqmred upon 
the popular mind, even in the days of the Catholepis- 
temiad, was phenomenal, and it has never been relaxed 
even down to the present. During the period in which 
the union schools and the high schools were in their 
formative stages, the imiversity exerted an exceptionally 
strong and, beneficent influence upon them. One can 
trace this influence through their aims, spirit, and ideals; 
through their organization and administration; their 
programs of study; their standards of scholarship; the 
flexibility of their curricula; the articulation with the 
college and with the lower schools, and even, in slight 
measure, through the methods of instruction. We shall 
touch upon each of these aspects in the proper places. 
Suffice it to say here that, as a general rule, notable 
changes and reforms have first found their application 
in the university and have then been carried into the 
field of secondary education. 

Nevertheless, in one very notable respect at least, 
the reverse of this rule has been true. This is with refer- 
ence to coeducation of the sexes. From the earliest day 



igS Public Secondary Education 

in Michigan the primary school, the union school, the 
academies, and even the branches of the university looked 
upon coeducation as eminently proper and feasible. 
Not every academy, to be sure, or every branch of 
the university, admitted girls or women to its courses. 
This fact, however, was based more upon the idea of 
expediency and personal predilection than upon any 
common theory or established principle. 

Nevertheless, despite these current practices, coedu- 
cation in colleges and imiversities — and for that matter 
the separate higher education of women in separate col- 
leges — was in general, and until a very recent date, 
denounced in theory and unheard of in practice, not only 
in Michigan but in almost every other part of the world. 
Women were regarded as being unfit both physically 
and mentally for higher things in the way of intellectual 
culture. And as for coeducation, social and moral reasons 
were adduced to combat the idea. A "finishing school," 
at the most, was considered commensurate with woman's 
native ability and in keeping with the highest social ends. 
Like all false notions, however, these, too, were bound 
in time to be refuted and disproved. Coeducation first 
pried open the doors of the primary school, then of the 
academies, then of the grammar school, then of the high 
school, then of the normal school, and finally also those 
of the college and the university. The full but tardy 
acceptance of this principle by institutions of higher 
learning naturally had a reciprocal and correlative influ- 
ence upon the lower schools. Particularly have the high 
schools been greatly affected by it. 

No clearly audible demands for the admission of women 
to the University of Michigan seem to have been made 
until after the ratification of the revised state constitu- 
tion in 1851. Certain clauses in that instrument, and 



The High-School Era 199 

subsequent legislation based upon them, seemed to give 
the friends of coeducation a leverage. The law provided 
that the tmiversity should be open without charge to 
"all persons" in the state.^ Did the words "aU persons" 
include women? Obviously, in common parlance, they 
did, but whether or not technically they comprehended 
women was a question of earnest dispute. At any rate, 
there soon arose a not insignificant party which continued 
to clamor for equal privileges for both sexes at the uni- 
versity. Memorials and petitions were addressed to the 
president, the faculties, the regents, and even to the legis- 
lature and the courts, tirging the claims of women. Even 
local commtmities took up the discussion, and sentiment 
was formed from one end of the state to the other. 
The more the idea was opposed the stronger it grew. 
In 1855 the Michigan State Teachers' Association, by 
resolution, went on record in favor of opening the uni- 
versity to all alike.2 About the same time a monster 
petition was sent to the regents praying them to grant 
this avowed right to the daughters of the state. This 
body referred the matter to a committee, which in turn 
sought the advice of numerous influential educators 
throughout the United States.^ Conflicting and varying 
opinions were received, but the committee finally reported 
that "at present it is inexpedient to introduce the plan 
into the university."^ This was in 1858. 

Nevertheless, the agitation did not cease. The courts 

1 Section 13 of Act 151, approved April 8, 1851, says: "The University shall be 
open to all persons resident of this state without charge of tuition, under the 
regulations prescribed by the Regents, and to all other persons under such regula- 
tions and restrictions as the board may prescribe." 

2 Report of Superiniendeiit of Public Inslruction, 1859, pp. no ff. The resolution 
reads thus; "That it is the opinion of this Association that coeducation of the 
sexes is in accordance with true philosophy and is practically expedient." The 
resolution grew out of a report made by Professor Putnam, and of discussions to 
which the report and other papers led. 

3 Among the persons consulted were Presidents Hopkins of Williams College, 
Walker of Harvard, Woolsey of Yale, and several others. 
* Regents' Report, 1858. 



200 Public Secondary Education 

were besought for a mandamus requiring the regents to 
put into effect the statutory provisions. The legislature 
was solicited to erect, separately, another state institution 
exclusively devoted to the higher education of women in 
college and university branches. A private school was 
foimded at Lansing which seems to have had the ambition 
and hope that it would shortly receive the financial sup- 
port of the state and would ultimately be transformed 
into a state university for women. ^ The Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, in his annual reports, touched at 
length upon the matter and gave it as his deliberate 
opinion that the regents were acting contrary to their 
legal and moral obligations. 

Still, for several years no practical progress was made 
save in intensifying and crystallizing public sentiment. 
Until 1870 the regents were obdurate.^ In that year 
they receded from their former position and voted to 
admit to the imiversity both sexes on an equal footing.^ 
In February of that year the first woman student was 
matriculated. The following school year, 1870-71, there 
were thirty-four women enrolled — fourteen being in 
the Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts; 
eighteen in the Department of Medicine, and two in 
the Department of Law.* From that day to this the 
enrollment has never slackened. In 1908-1909 there 

1 This was the Michigan Female College. Miss A. C. Rogers, the principal of 
this school, reported in 1858 that one building was complete and she hoped con- 
tributions would soon be made to carry out the ideals of the founders. The 
program of studies included a full four years' course in classics and science. (Report, 
1858, pp. 418 #.) 

2 The legislature in 1867 adopted this resolution: "Resolved that it is the 
deliberate opinion of this Legislature that the high objects for which the University 
of Michigan was organized will never be fully attained until women are admitted 
to all its rights and privileges." {President's Report, 1868, p. 191.) The president 
of the university, Mr. E. O. Haven, also advised the experiment, but the State 
Superintendent was unfavorable to the plan. 

3 Regents' Report, 1870. The exact date was January 5, 1870. 

4 The first woman to matriculate was Miss Madalon Louisa Stockwell of Kala- 
mazoo, who enrolled in the Literary Department, February 2, 1870. (Regents' 
Report, 1870.) 



The High-School Era 201 

were enrolled in all departments 886 women students.^ 
To-day the nimiber is in excess of twelve hundred. 

Obviously this decision of the regents was botmd to 
have a notable reaction upon the high schools. Espe- 
cially was this the case in the larger cities and towns, 
because the decision came as it did at the end of years 
of public clamor and agitation. While the high schools 
in Michigan never were, and are not now, primarily 
established to serve as college-preparatory schools, pure 
and simple, they have from the very outset had this ideal 
as one of their aims, and have consistently carried out 
these ideals in practice. From the earhest times, too, 
the high schools have, in general, enrolled a larger propor- 
tion of girls than of boys. Since, however, until 1870 no 
opportunity was afforded girls to secure a college or 
tmiversity education at state expense, a relatively small 
number completed the high-school course or aspired 
to further education. During this period the State 
Normal School alone invited girls to post-high-school 
study.2 

After 1870 all this was changed. Not only, as has been 
said, did many young ladies now remain for graduation 
from the local high school and then enter the university, 
but the newly acquired college privileges stimulated 
high-school life and high-school attendance in general. 
One cannot doubt that the new dignity accorded to the 
high school in making it a college-preparatory school 
for girls as well as for boys attracted to its doors hundreds 
of youths who otherwise would never have entered them. 
Not that all who thus came remained to graduate, or 

1 College year 1908-9. Of the total number, 735 were enrolled in the Literary 
Department; one in Engineering; twenty in Medicine; two in Law; four in 
Pharmacy; six in Homeopathy; eight in Dentistry; and no (omitting duplicates) 
in the summer school. (President Angell's report for 1908-1909.) 

2 There were, of course, private or denominational colleges admitting girls 
before 1870. The statement above has reference solely to public education. 



202 Public Secondary Education 

that all who graduated went on to college, or that all 
who went on to college entered the University of Michigan, 
The point is that the privilege granted by the university 
fired the imaginations and the ambitions of more youths, 
stimulated an interest in the high schools, and thus vastly 
augmented the movement that was already so well iinder 
way — the movement fostering and developing public 
secondary education, open and available for all. 

Two other innovations made by the university had 
particularly potent influences upon the high school of 
the state. These were the expansion of the subject- 
matter within the imiversity program of studies; and, 
secondly, the closer articulation of the imiversity with 
the high schools through affiliation and the granting of 
certificating privileges. We shall consider these two 
aspects in turn. 

In harmony with practically all other colleges of liberal 
culture in the world, the University of Michigan at first 
had in its curriculum only one narrowly prescribed course 
of study for every student. This was the old, traditional 
classical course, slightly modified, requiring not only a 
knowledge of mathematics, Latin, and Greek for admission, 
but also occupying most of the student's time in college 
with these three branches of study. ^ Toward the middle 
of the century, however, the scientific movement had 
attained such proportions that it could no longer be kept 
in the inferior position hitherto assigned it by the colleges.^ 
Now concessions had to be made. Science demanded 
a place in the college curriculum independent of that 

1 It is found by actual computation that slightly more than fifty per cent of the 
time was devoted to these three subjects. 

2 It will be recalled that the theoretical scientific movement was as old as Bacon 
and Comenius, but most of the colleges and universities had until much later 
succeeded in keeping the subject out of their programs. Then isolated subjects 
were put in the curriculum and prescribed for all students. Until about 1850, 
though, science was, generally speaking, a questionable field of study. This 
was true of the University of Michigan as it was of other colleges at the time. 



The High-School Era 203 

awarded the humanities and on an equal footing with 
them. In 1853 the University of Michigan yielded to 
this demand by instituting, parallel with the Classical 
Course, a Scientific Coiirse.^ For admission to this 
cotirse no pre-collegiate training in the ancient languages 
was required, but once the student was enrolled he was 
required to pursue the study of Latin, though not of 
Greek, the same as the classical students. 

The principle of strict uniformity once having been 
yielded it is obvious that the divisions of the program 
could not stop with two parallel courses. Such an 
arrangement was mere mockery of individual tastes 
and capacities. Further advance was absolutely imper- 
ative. In consequence, new changes were made, one 
after another, and always in the direction of a greater 
freedom for individual choice. Election of studies 
within the courses was allowed to seniors as early as 
1855 and 1856. This same year, too (1855), a third 
course, that of civil engineering, was instituted parallel 
with the other two, and in 1864 there was added a course 
in mining engineering. In 1867 there were recognized 
and offered by the Faculty six parallel courses, all leading 
to a degree. These were styled (i) the Classical, (2) the 
First Scientific, (3) the Second Scientific, (4) the Latin 
and Scientific, (5) the Civil Engineering, and (6) the 
Mining and Engineering courses.^ 

Having once elected one of these six courses the student 
was at first required to pursue, without variation, the 

1 President Tappan, in his inaugural address in 1852, first proposed the plan, 
and the following year it was carried into effect. One year earlier, however (in 
1851), the legislature, by an act, opened the doors of the university to special 
students — that is, to students not conforming strictly to the prescribed course 
or passing all the prescribed entrance examinations. (Hinsdale's History of the 
University of Michigan, pp. 43 and 44.) 

2 Report of President E. O. Haven for 1867, in Report of Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, 1867, pp. 171 ff. In the Report of 1870 these courses are styled: (i) the 
Classical, (2) the Scientific, (3) the Latin-Scientific, (4) the Greek-Scientific, (s) 
Civil Engineering, and (6) Mining Engineering. (Report of President, 1870, 
p. 210 in State Papers.) 



204 Public Secondary Education 

subjects therein laid down. Then came the privilege to 
seniors to elect certain subjects within that course. In 
1870 seniors were permitted the further freedom of 
breaking over the limits of their selected course and of 
choosing subjects from one or more of the parallel courses.^ 
All this is an earnest of the free elective system that was 
to come later. 

In 1873 Dr. Angell stated that seniors were given 
permission to elect work "from a wide range of sub- 
jects," and in 1874 a like privilege v/as granted the 
juniors. For two years or more, said President Angell in 
his report of that year, a student was held to a definite 
course embracing the "disciplinary and fimdamental 
studies belonging to his coiirse," and was then given a 
rather free option.^ 

In 1877 still another course was opened in the imi- 
versity, namely, a course leading to the degree of Bachelor 
of Letters, and articulating with the distinctively English 
or non-linguistic course in the high school.^ 

In 1880 the university had revised its courses in the 
literary department and reduced them to four in niimber. 
These were courses leading to the following degrees : 

1. Bachelor of Letters, requiring neither Latin nor Greek either 

for admission or for graduation. 

2. Bachelor of Science, requiring one year of Latin for admission, 

but none thereafter, and no Greek. 

3. Bachelor of Letters (Latin), requiring Latin for admission and 

in college, but no Greek. 

4. Bachelor of Arts, requiring both Latin and Greek for admission 

and also in college.* 

At the same time, too, graduation from the university 
was based no longer upon a definite term of residence, 

1 President Angell's report for 1872 in Report of Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, 1872, p. 176. 

2 Report, 1874, p. 95. 

3 Ibid., 1877, pp. 14 and 15. 
*Ibid., 1880, p. no. 



The High-School Era 205 

but upon the completion of a specific amount of work 
estimated in " hours. "^ For the A.B. degree 120 hours' 
credit were required, for the other degrees, 130 hours' 
credit. About half of these "hours" were open to free 
election by the student.^ 

In 1889 the study of science received another impulse 
through the requirement made by the university that 
students entering on the A.B. and the Ph.B. courses 
should offer for admission both physics and botany, 
and that candidates for the B.L. degree should present 
for admission three sciences or, in lieu thereof, credit 
in French and German.^ 

Finally, in 1900, the university abolished all courses, 
as such, in the literary department, made the work 
entirely elective (save for four or six hours of prescribed 
English), and conferred but one baccalaureate degree — 
Bachelor of Arts — on the completion of 120 semester 
hours. 

Likewise, too, for admission the university no longer 
required conformity to any hard-and-fast courses of 
study in the preparatory school. Certain prescribed 
subjects, it is true, were still demanded of every matricu- 
lant who became a candidate for a degree, but within 
certain well-defined and large limits the individual had 
nearly free choice.^ 

As already implied, all these changes in the university 
reacted with great force upon the high schools of the 

1 An "hour" was usually the equivalent of one recitation per week carried through 
one semester. 

2The A.B. course allowed 58 hours of elective studies; the B.L. (Latin), 64 hours; 
the B.L., 73 hours; and the B.S., is in natural science and 29 others unlimited in 
choice. (From a "Table of Statistics" prepared by Professor W. W. Beman and 
Superintendent W. S. Perry, and printed in Superintendent's Report, 1880, p. 119.) 

3 President's Report for 1889, p. 189. Before 1889 candidates for the degree 
of B.L. had offered only two sciences. 

4 The requirements for admission in 1900 were fifteen units or years' work. 
Of these, three units in English, three in mathematics, one in physics, and two in 
any foreign language were demanded of all regular students. The other six units 
were optional from a wide field of studies. 



2o6 Public Secondary Education 

state. Wherever the university led, the high schools 
readily and willingly followed.^ 

Deriving their ideals at the outset from the prevalent 
academies and seminaries, the high schools — before, in 
fact, the opening of the eratmder present consideration — 
offered their work in a more or less unorganized way. 
There was little or no uniformity anywhere among them. 
There were, of course, certain common subjects found 
in every school professing to have an academic depart- 
ment, but the order in which these were presented, the 
time devoted to each branch, and the general standards 
attained varied widely from school to school, and not 
infrequently, too, in the same school in different years. 
The number and selection of the uncommon branches 
taken up depended pretty largely upon expediency and 
the resources of the particular school. These conditions 
were particularly noticeable in the early union schools, 
and the early high schools inherited the tendency from 
them. If a pupil, or a group of pupils, desired to pursue 
a particular study, that study was usually taught. If in 
the following year or term there was no demand for that 
subject, some other was substituted in its place. If 
Latin or Greek were desired by any considerable number 
of pupils, a teacher qualified to give this instruction was 
secured. If later the constituency of the class left school, 
the teacher's time was employed in other ways. Indeed, 

1 It ought not to be understood that the university required the high schools to 
accept its terms. The university has never dictated. It has, however, often of its 
own free will and more often at the earnest solicitation of the high schools them- 
selves, given advice and suggestions to the secondary schools, and these have 
usually been accepted and followed. The relation, however, between the two 
fields of education is purely cooperative. The university has always — -and justly, 
one must think — claimed the right to set its own standards of admission. No 
high school has, however, ever been required to accept these standards against its 
own best interests — and no high school ought ever to do so. The public high 
school, as established in America, is a local institution first of all. It should defer 
to local interest and needs before attempting to serve in a larger capacity. This at 
least is the true basis of the high schools of Michigan. A very cordial, kindly, 
mutually helpful spirit has always existed, nevertheless, between these schools and 
the university. It would be a sad day for education in the state were this relation 
ever to cease. 



The High-School Era 207 

the whole organization was on an elective basis, but 
instead of being an elective system it was, to use Professor 
Hanus' words, an "elective chaos." 

Gradually, however, definite order and distinct courses 
began to emerge from the confusion, and before the 
opening of the true high-school period a more or less stable 
goal had been set up, and the straight and narrow way 
leading to it had been laid out. Wherever the programs 
of studies had evolved so far as to warrant the appellations 
of distinct courses, two were usually found, namely, the 
Classical Course and the English Course. The first of 
these, so far as the choice and scope of the subject-matter 
was concerned, was pretty uniform; the second was far 
from being so. In his report of 1861 Superintendent 
Gregory presented to the school men of Michigan a sug- 
gestive program of studies for tmion schools. The plan for 
the elementary grades is definite and specific, but for the 
high schools he only "indicates" what may be included. 
These subjects are algebra, geometry, natural philoso- 
phy, rhetoric, natiu-al history, botany, geology, chemistry, 
moral and mental philosophy, and ancient and modem 
languages.^ This constituted the ideal program of the 
day, and doubtless its recommendation was of consid- 
erable influence in helping to bring unity into the work. 

Following closely the university, and keeping step with 
her, the high schools next began to modify and divide 
the two courses already mentioned, and to admit into 
their curricula other and newer subjects. Just as in the 
university, the next course to be established was the Sci- 
entific. Then came the Latin-Scientific and the English- 
Scientific and these were followed by courses made up of 
various combinations of subjects grouped under appro- 
priate headings. Once having selected his course on 

^Report for 1 86 1, p. 45. 



2o8 Public Secondary Education 

entrance to the high school, a pupil's fate was sealed. 
Henceforth his road was laid out for him between nar- 
row and unchanging lines. To turn either to the right or 
left was strictly forbidden; to go ahead, often impossible. 
The only way out for the pupil who found he had made 
an inapt election was to retreat to the entrance and begin 
again. Even this Hobson's choice was not always given 
him, and, if it were, discouragement frequently hemmed 
him in so thickly that the usual result was the total aban- 
donment of school, — without graduation and with little or 
no return to show for his one or two or three years' effort. 
Nevertheless, despite the apparent evils, this pernicious 
system dominated the schools for several years to come. 
Educators, however, sought to minimize the disadvan- 
tages by increasing the nimiber of courses. Instead of 
giving the pupil four roads from which to select his 
destined way, schools offered him a choice among five, 
six, seven — yes, in some instances as many as eleven, 
twelve, or thirteen^ — different routes, whereas the diffi- 
culty lay not in the nvraiber of courses but in the fact that 
the inexperienced youth was not capable of unerringly 
selecting any course that guaranteed no need of later 
revision. Indeed, the miiltiplicity of choices tended more 
to confusion than to clarity. What was really needed 
was a training in choice before the pupil entered the high 
school, or at least an opportunity to correct a wrong 
choice as soon as the discovery was made. 

1 Ann Arbor, for example, offered the following courses in 1874 : (1) Classical ; 
(2) Latin; (3) Scientific; (4) English; (5) French and Science; (6) German and 
Science; (7) Latin and German; (8) German; (9) Commercial. (Principal's 
Report to Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1874, pp. 25$ ff.) Grand Rapids as 
late as 1897 offered eleven courses as follows: (i) Commercial-English; (2) Pre- 
paratory English; (3) French-English; (4) Short German-English; (5) German- 
English; (6) Engmeering; (7) Scientific; (8) Latin-German; (9) French-German; 
(10) Classical; (11) English-Scientific. Pupils, however, at this date were not held 
rigidly to a suggested course. (Report of Board of Education, 1896, p. 178; 1897, 
pp. 82 and 8s.) The writer himself recalls having visited a school — Charlevoix— 
as late as 1906 in whose catalogue thirteen courses were printed, and these were 
expected to be followed closely in practice. 



The High-School Era 209 

The making of courses of study had reached such a 
stage that it required a master to conceive them, and a 
past-master to interpret and apply them. Indeed, the 
situation had become humorous and ludicrous, and the 
idea began to crumble before the ridicule hurled at it. 

Meanwhile, as at the university, there was creeping 
into high schools, here and there, the principle of free 
election of studies. As a rule every pupil in the earlier 
high schools was expected to carry simultaneously three 
separate branches, but strong, capable, and ambitious 
students were frequently permitted to pursue addi- 
tional subjects lying outside the scope of the regular 
printed course. Particularly was this true in respect 
to the election of a foreign language.^ 

Nevertheless it was the "regular course" and the "reg- 
ular student" that received the greatest moral support 
and encouragement of the school. As late even as 1898, 
when there were enrolled in the three high schools of 
Detroit 3,496 pupils, only 118 were "special students," 
or students not following definite courses. ^ 

In 1874, out of a selected list of twenty-eight state 
high schools not one permitted a pupil to break over the 
boundaries of his elected course of study .^ Two years 
later, however. East Saginaw reported having introduced 
the principle of a partial election of studies, and found 
that the idea "popularizes without destroying efficiency."* 

All thoughtful educators seemed to have appreciated 
the need for greater flexibility, but no one was sufficiently 

1 For example, the catalogue of the Detroit School Board for 1879 (p. 82) 
declares that "a partial course" may be taken by a student, but that no certificate 
of graduation will be given for work thus done. The report further states that 
" Pupils of the English Course rnay take Latin, German or French as an extra study, 
as long as they do good work in all their studies." 

^Report of the Board of Education, 1898, p. 128. 

3 Statistics compiled by Superintendent J. C. Jones of Pontiac, and quoted in 
Report of Superinlendefit of Public Education, 1874, P- 370. 

4 School report to Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1876, p. 328. The plan 
was, of course, free election in a limited sense only. 

15 



210 Public Secondary Education 

convinced, or siifficiently bold, to propose a complete 
abandonment of the idea of prescribed courses. Not 
tmtil the late nineties does the idea of free elections by 
individual pupils seem to have been voiced before the 
public as the best means of remedying the difficulties. 
In 1898 Professor A. S. Whitney,^ in a paper read before 
the State Teachers' Association, advocated the abolition 
of all set courses in the high school and the substitution 
therefor of two intensely flexible courses styled by him 
the "fitting" and the "finishing" courses, or the college- 
preparatory course and the non-college-preparatory 
course.^ 

Shortly after this date the leading schools of the state 
began avowedly to organize and operate their work on 
this basis, modifying the principle in such details of 
application as seemed wise for local needs. This is the 
situation to-day, and this is the working plan of the 
majority of the schools of the state. 

The second notable innovation inaugurated by the 
imiversity and wonderfully affecting the high schools was 
the plan of receiving pupils for admission upon the pres- 
entation of certificates of graduation from approved 
secondary schools and without any individual examina- 
tion. Coupled with this plan should be considered also 
the influence exerted by the university upon the standards 
of scholarship found or demanded in the high schools. 

As already mentioned in earlier chapters of this work, 
the scope of the subject-matter, and probably the quality 
of the instruction, in all the earlier colleges and uni- 
versities was, aside from the classics, of a general and 
elementary character. This was equally true of the 

1 At that time Mr. Whitney was Superintendent of Schools in East Saginaw. 

2 This paper, styled "Flexibility of the High School Course," is reported in full 
in the Reports of the State Teachers' Association, and is to be found in Report oj 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1898, pp. 180 ff. 



The High-School Era 211 

University of Michigan. Entrance requirements, aside 
from a knowledge of the classical languages, were nomi- 
nal. Graduation standards were not high. Material 
prosperity, however, gave confidence, and with this 
came a boldness in advancing scholastic standards. Pre- 
admission attainments and post-admission demands were 
set at a higher scale. The result was that high schools, 
too, advanced with equal step. Not only is this 
true with respect to subjects directly preparatory for 
college, but the influence S5nmpathetically and refiex- 
ively was carried over into the non-college-preparatory 
courses. 

When the imion schools first arose there was, as we 
have seen, little uniformity among them — either in 
their details of organization, their programs of study, or 
the order of presentation of instruction. Schools were 
divided into grades to meet local convenience or the 
theories of the local officials. As new subject-matter 
was added new grades were organized to encompass it. 
In time union schools with fifteen grades were not im- 
common. These, as we have seen, were divided into 
what was equivalent to the first primary, second primary, 
intermediate, grammar, and high-school departments, 
each containing two or more grades organized to cover 
two or more years of study. The high-school depart- 
ment was almost always divided into three grades only, 
though in some instances, even at the outset, it was 
planned to cover four or even five years' work. The 
school year of from thirty-six to forty-five weeks was 
divided into three terms, and subjects of instruction were 
fitted into these terms according to local desires. 

Not infrequently one finds in the early high schools 
the Classical Course planned for the longer period, while 
the English Course was drawn to cover only two or three 



212 Public Secondary Education 

years' time ^ — a fact that reveals the inferior rank 
accorded the mere "practical" subjects in those days. 
Indeed, about this time there seems to have been at the 
university an ambition to shape the whole system of 
education in Michigan on the German model. The high 
schools, it was hoped, would develop into gymnasien, and 
the imiversity would then be able gradually to shift 
the undergraduate or college work from the one cen- 
tral institution to the various secondary schools, and 
thus leave opportunity to herself to devote her time and 
efforts exclusively to graduate or research study. Presi- 
dent Frieze in his report for 1870 expressly voiced this wish 
and hope. After noting the fact that the requirements 
for admission to the university were much more exacting 
than they had been fifteen years before, he adds: "I 
cannot but think that there are existing in the state the 
conditions which, seized upon now and carefully watched 
and improved will, in the end, develop the gymnasium 
in its proper place and secure to us the true University.^ 
One public high school of this state, at the close of the 
present year, has sent into our Academic Department a 
class of thirty-five students, well prepared. The high 
schools of the state, in general, are yearly coming into 
more intimate relations to the University, and sending 
increasing numbers to its halls. "^ 

1 In Grand Rapids in 1859 the English Course was three years in length; the 
Classical, five. {Report of Superinlendeni of Public Inslruclion, 1859, p. 99.) At 
the same time Jackson devoted three years to each course. {Ibid., p. 121.) Mar- 
shall, on the other hand, gave four years to the English Course and three to the 
Classical. {Ibid., p. 144.) Monroe had a "Primary Department" of three years, 
a "Junior Department" of six years, and an "Academical Department" of five 
years — that is, fourteen years all told. (Ibid., p. 151.) 

2 The German influence on the high schools of Michigan was perhaps best seen 
in the organization at Monroe. Here there were fourteen years' work laid out and 
grades were numbered in reverse order to the common American plan, that is, the 
most elementary grade was called the ninth grade, the next one above, the eighth 
grade, and so on up to the academic department. The lowest grade of this depart- 
ment was styled the "E Class," the next above the "D Class," and thence on 
through the "C Class," "B Class," and "A Class." The last, the "A Class," was 
the graduating class of the high school. (Report of the school in Report of Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction, 1859, pp. 151 ff.) 

3 President's Report, 1870, p. 208. 



The High-School Ere 213 

In this same report President Frieze also mentions the 
fact that certain educators, within and without the 
imiversity, had suggested a way of bringing the high 
schools into closer relations to that institution by means 
of "a Commission of Examiners from the Academic 
Faculty" which "should visit annually such schools as 
may desire it and give certificates to those pupils who 
may be successful in their examinations, entitling them 
to admission, without fiirther examination, to the Uni- 
versity. "^ 

Later in the same year President Angell in his inaugural 
address voiced similar views. "The time is not far dis- 
tant," said he, "when the better and stronger institutions 
can safely push up their requirements for admission to 
the standard now reached at the beginning of the Sopho- 
more year, and I am confident that the day is not remote 
when they can secure yet higher attainments."^ 

President Angell then suggested that the high schools 
take over instruction in mathematics at least up to trigo- 
nometry, and that the elements of physiology, botany, 
physics, French, and a year or more of Latin be given in 
every one of the stronger schools. 

The next year, 187 1, these ideas had begun to be put 
into effect by the university. A year of French was 
required for admission to the Latin-Scientific Course. 
In 1872 one year of French and an elementary knowledge 
of natural philosophy, botany, zoology, and geology were 
required for admission to the Scientific Course. In 1874 
an additional year of Latin was required for admission 
to the Classical Course.^ Still later, other demands were 
added. For example, in 1889 physics and botany were 

1 Ibid., p. 209. 

2 Inaugural address. Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, l87If 
pp. 214 #. 

3 President's Report, 1872, p. 180. 



214 Public Secondary Education 

made preparatory subjects for admission to the courses 
leading to the A.B. and the Ph.B. degrees; and three 
sciences, or in lieu thereof a knowledge of French and 
German, were demanded for admission to the course 
leading to the B.L. degree. 

Necessarily, and as one would expect, those require- 
ments of admission to the university were followed by a 
revision of the courses of study in the high schools, 
though it is true some school boards objected to what 
they were pleased to call the "dictation" from the uni- 
versity and refused to comply with the conditions that 
would enable their youth to prepare themselves to enter 
the university.^ 

Many high schools in fact found themselves between 
two forces and were violently pulled in opposite directions 
at the same time. The narrowly prescribed courses often 
met local needs very ineffectively. There was a de- 
mand for more liberality and for more popular and 
practical subjects. Despite the efforts of teachers and 
officials, proportionally few pupils who entered the high 
schools remained to graduate. In 1874, Grand Rapids, 
for example, reduced the high-school course from four 
years to three years expressly to meet this difficulty and 
to encoiirage pupils to aspire to a diploma.^ Other schools 
acted in a similar way, and nearly all made efforts to 
minimize the faults by increasing and popularizing the 
courses of study. 

Just at this juncture, it will be recalled, the new demands 
from the university were forcing additional burdens upon 
schools that still aimed to be preparatory schools. The 
cry went up that the pupils were overtaxed; that tlie 

1 Report of the Board of Visitors to the University in 1872, Report of Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction, 1872, p. 195. 

2 Report of the school for 1874, Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
p. 260. 



The High-School Era 215 

program of studies was overcrowded; that the courses 
were not sufficiently extended to enable the work to be 
done properly and without injury to the pupils. To the 
plan for decreasing the length of the course to encourage 
graduation, and hence to secure for more pupils at least 
three years of academic training, was now opposed the 
idea of increasing the allotted time in order to relieve the 
overburdening and to meet the university requirements. 
As was to be expected, both parties won certain temporary 
victories, but the ultimate outcome was an advance in the 
standards of scholarship, and hence a imiform increase in 
the length of the high-school course to four years.^ 

The standard school period was now one of twelve 
years and twelve grades. In 1877 no school reported 
more than twelve grades, though communities not being 
able or not finding it expedient to support a four-year 
high-school course naturally stopped short at the ninth, 
tenth, or eleventh grade.^ On the other hand, not a few 
of the better schools of the state began to furnish post- 
graduate work for such students as cared to return to the 
high school after having taken a diploma at the end of 
the regular four years' course. For the most part these 

1 Ann Arbor, for example, in 1874 took steps to make her high-school course 
four years instead of three. Battle Creek had already done this three years 
before, in 1871. (Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1875, p. 325.) 
In 1876 Saginaw reported that their course of study had, during the past five years, 
been gradually reduced from fifteen years to twelve years. (Report, 1876, p. 269.) 
Niles the same year increased the high-school course from three years to four by 
transferring one year of the grammar grades to the high school. (Ibid., p. 308.) 
Flint reported a full four years' high-school course of four parallel courses of study. 
(Ibid., p. 274.) Business courses also began to appear about this time. Grand 
Rapids establishing one m 1875. (Report, 1875, p. 355.) 

The superintendent of the Adrian schools, Mr. Payne, in his report for l87S 
emphatically declared that "the settled line of policy" of their school was "to 
provide that kind of instruction which will best meet the wants of the community. 
Public opinion in this community at this time is unmistakably in favor of that class 
of studies embraced in the Continental real-sckule — Latin, History, Mathematics 
and Natural Science — and hence the organization of our High School is therefore 
on this basis." (Report of 1875, p. 304.) The Classical Course was therefore 
abolished at Adrian at this time. 

2 In 1877 there were 721 schools having twelve grades; 1,108 having eleven 
grades; 1,659 having ten grades; and 2,364 having nine grades. The total number 
of schools offering more than merely eight grades of work thus was 5,852. (Report, 
1877, p. 8.) Of course few of these possessed real high schools. 



2i6 Public Secondary Education 

pupils included those who desired to secure a cultural 
knowledge of subjects not regularly found in their chosen 
course, those who were eager to prepare themselves better 
in practical subjects or for positions as teachers, and 
those who sought to fit themselves more thoroiighly for 
admission to college or who hoped to secure for this 
extra work advanced credit from the college authorities. 
The University of Michigan has always recognized and 
encouraged this work of supererogation and has allowed 
definite irtiiversity credit therefor.^ Hence many a student 
has been able to shorten his college course by one full 
year or more, thus bringing to pass, in a measure. Dr. 
Frieze's and Dr. Angell's wishes, uttered forty years ago. 

Somewhat later, in 1891, Dr. Angell in his annual 
report says, apropos of this question: "It is gratifying 
to hear that some of the schools of Michigan think they 
can do the most or whole of the work of our first year, 
and can send their students prepared to take up the studies 
of our second year. We should be only too glad to be 
relieved altogether of our first year's work, and we desire 
to encourage the schools in their praiseworthy efforts to 
carry their pupils farther than they have done heretofore, 
provided they do not diminish the thoroughness of the 
more elementary work."^ About this same period — 
between 1870 and 1880 — the trimestrial division of the 
school year was largely abandoned, and, following the 
example of the university, the semestrial plan was 
substituted in its place. 

Meanwhile the entente of the imiversity and the high 
schools was becoming firmer and closer through the 
operation of the idea of "affiliation." This plan was first 

1 In 1876 Detroit, for example, had five regular high-school grades, and in 
addition, a post-graduate grade. This last contained at that time twenty-nine 
students. (Principals' Report of 1S76, p. 262.) 

2 President Angell's annual report, 1891, p. 88, in State Reports of that year. 



The High-School Era 217 

put into effect in 1871. Under the earliest arrangements 
a committee of the Literary Faculty — a committee of 
one, two, or three members usually — visited, upon 
request, any high school whose program of studies was 
sufficiently comprehensive in scope to fit pupils for admis- 
sion to all of the courses offered in the university. If, 
after a personal inspection of the school, the committee 
was satisfied with the organization, teaching staff, equip- 
ment, and the general work done, and was convinced that 
its graduates could satisfactorily pursue work in the 
university, such graduates, if recommended by the 
high-school principal or by the superintendent, were 
admitted directly to the freshman class in the university 
without further examination. 

The plan was immensely popular from the start. 
The very first year fifty candidates were thus admitted.^ 
Each succeeding year brought additional requests from 
the high schools soliciting a visit of inspection, and each 
year brought increased numbers into the university 
through this door. The university authorities approved 
the idea, for it almost guaranteed large entering classes. 
It also did away, in a measure, with the delay and tedium 
incident to the formal examinations held at the beginning 
of each college year. The plan was, too, regarded as a 
safer, surer, and saner test of a pupil's ability than was 
any short, formal, and chance examination. Moreover, 
the scheme enabled members of the faculty to come into 
personal contact with the constituency of the university, 
and thus better to know the public sentiments and needs ; 
and, in consequence, permitted them to adapt their 
work more justly to social ends. 

The high-school authorities supported the plan, since 

iThese came from six schools as follows: three from Detroit, eight from Flint, 
seven from Jackson, three from Kalamazoo, one from Adrian, and twenty-eight 
from Ann Arbor. {President's Report, 1872, p. 181.) 



2i8 Public Secondary Education 

"affiliation" brought the school thus recognized into 
dignity and prominence in the state, reflected honor 
upon its teachers and officials, and attracted to its halls 
in turn a larger proportion of the youth of the community. 
The pupils preparing for college also naturally applauded 
the plan as it saved them the ordeal — often a nerve- 
racking and dangerous ordeal — of undergoing the burden 
of a dozen or more examinations crowded into one week, 
conducted at a distance from their homes, before a strange, 
and therefore awe-inspiring and intimidating, body of 
examiners. 

In fact, few persons in the state could be found to oppose 
the scheme, and, after an experience of nearly forty years, 
none, apparently, who would abandon it.^ Nearly every 
report of President Angell for the subsequent ten or a 
dozen years contains a paragraph extolling the merits 
of the system as seen in practice, and expressing his 
gratitude for the cordial and generous cooperation given 
to this matter by the schools and the officials and teachers 
of the state. 

Gratifying, too, was the fact that the standard of work 
and of deportment maintained by the students thus 
admitted to the university was, on the whole, superior 
to that of pupils admitted on examination. There were 
fewer "failures" and fewer "conditions" among the 
certificated students than among the others.^ 

In 1876 the accrediting system underw^ent another 
change, made in the interest of the high schools and the 
public. Up to that year no student was admitted to the 
university without examination, unless the high school 
from which he graduated was organized and equipped to 

1 There is now and then heard a criticism of the plan, but it is a criticism directed 
against the careless application of the principle rather than against the principle 
itself. 

^President's Report, 1872, pp. 181 ff. Later reports also substantiate this claim. 



The High-School Era 219 

prepare pupils simultaneously for admission to all the 
undergraduate courses. As already seen, many high 
schools felt indisposed to attempt to meet these require- 
ments. The Classical Course, reqmring both Latin and 
Greek, seemed ever5rwhere to be on the wane. Few high 
schools could or would therefore support this course. 
Few — very few — pupils in the smaller cities and towns 
cared to pursue the study of Greek, and it was a burden 
to the taxpayers to continue classes in this subject for 
one, or two, or three pupils. In the year mentioned the 
university recognized the justness of this attitude and 
thereupon granted limited certificate privileges to those 
high schools that were found fitted to prepare students 
for admission to any one course in the university. This 
change encouraged small schools to do well the work in a 
limited field rather than to attempt too much and run 
the risk of doing all superficially and ineffectively. This 
provision in consequence added a nimiber of high schools 
to the university approved list and stimulated others to 
reach out for similar honors.^ 

When still later the principle of free individual election 
of studies came into common usage, ^ still greater freedom 
was granted to the high schools. Then pupils' admission 
to the university was determined not by any absolutely 

1 In 1880, as we have seen, there were four courses in the Literary Department 
of the university. That year there were, all told, sixteen high schools of the state 
on the affiliated list. (.President's Report, 1880, p. 112.) 

Superintendent J. C. Jones of Pontiac in his report for 1874 summed up the 
advantages of the accrediting system, as he conceived them, as follows: (i) It had 
intensified, deepened, and dignified the work of the high schools. (2) It had led 
to conversation about the university and had therefore set more youths toward 
a college career. (3) It had stimulated parental pride in the high schools. (4) It 
had benefited the pupils physically and mentally by removing the dread of exam- 
inations, (s) It had held more pupils in the high schools until graduation and 
had caused more of them to go on to callings of leadership and dignity. (6^ It 
had tended to bring a uniformity to the programs of study. (7) It had prevented 
poorly prepared pupils getting into college on the chance passing of the examination. 
(8) It had stimulated the teachers to do their best. (Paper read before the State 
Teachers' Association at Kalamazoo.) 

2 In May, 1900, the university voted to abolish all fixed courses, to adopt the 
principle of absolutely free election of subject-matter (save English), and to grant 
but one bachelor's degree in the Literary Department, namely Bachelor of Arts, 
given on the completion of one hundred and twenty semester hours' work. 



220 Public Secondary Education 

uniform standard, but each one's case was judged upon 
its merits. Since, moreover, only tvv^o years' preparation 
in any one foreign language was then made the maximum 
foreign-language requirement for admission to the uni- 
versity, many new schools were in a position to aspire 
to the honor of affiliation. Indeed, there were few schools 
in the state which offered a full four years' high-school 
course that could not nominally fulfill this linguistic 
requirement. The effects of this plan may be judged 
from the fact that in 1907 out of the 285 high schools 
having a four-year course, 138 were affiliated with the 
imi versify.^ 

As was to be expected, the new relations established 
between the high schools and the imiversity soon affected 
the relation existing between the high schools and the 
grades below them. In the earlier days admission to 
the high schools was possible only upon condition of 
passing an examination set by the high-school authorities. 
Usually this examination included arithmetic, geography, 
grammar, reading, writing, and orthography. In a few 
schools United States history was required. Soon, how- 
ever, just as the leaving examinations of the high schools 
served for admission to the university, so the examina- 
tions and recommendations of the eighth-grade teachers 
became, in themselves, tickets of admission to the high 
school. In some schools, to be sure, this privilege was 
slow to be granted, but before 1900 the custom was 
practically universal. 

As we have seen elsewhere, the agitation for absolutely 
free public schools was going on throughout the state 
from an early date. The revised constitution of 185 1 
gave impetus to the movement, and one by one the 
schools gave up the practice of levying rate bills. It was 

1 Superintendent's Report, 1907, pp. 232 ff., and p. 10. 



The High-School Era 221 

not, however, until i86g that a general law made the 
custom illegal throughout the state. This act, more- 
over, had application only to the primary schools. Until 
the decision in the Kalamazoo case in 1874, high schools 
were not indubitably a part of these. Since that date, 
though, all high schools have been free to all residents of 
the district who are of school age.^ Residents not of the 
district in which the high school is located were never- 
theless required to pay such tuition for school privileges 
as the school officials might levy. This practice worked 
particular hardship upon the country youth who Hved 
in districts possessing no city or village high school. 
To secure a high-school education such students were 
obliged not only to journey to a neighboring town but 
to pay, out of their ov/n pockets, the tuition demanded 
there. Effort was repeatedly made to correct this in- 
equality and injustice, but success did not come tmtil 
after the opening of the twentieth century. In 1901 a 
permissive law was enacted authorizing township boards 
in townships having no village or city high school to 
establish a rural high school.^ The response, however, 
was not as ready as was expected.' The law provided 
that manual training, domestic science, nature study, and 
the elem.ents of agriculture might be included in the pro- 
gram of study, but even with these "practical" subjects 
available, rural communities were negligent about voting 
the school. In 1903 a supplementary law* authorized dis- 
tricts to vote a tax to pay the tuition and the expense 
of daily transportation of such pupils as were prepared 

1 The school age now is from five years to twenty-one years. 

2 Act 144, Laws of 190 1. 

3 The first rural high school to be erected under this law was at Covert, in Van 
Buren County, in 1903- (Report, 1003, p. 7.) But Superintendent Wright in 
his report of 1907 (p. 20) declared that "this law has been practically a dead 
letter until the year 1907." At that time Excelsior, Kalkaska County, established 
a school, and two or three other townships took steps to do likewise. {Report, 
1907, p. 10.) 

4 Act 190, Laws of 1903. 



222 Public Secondary Education 

and desirous of attending a neighboring high school, 
but like all permissive laws this was slow to be adopted. 

In 1909, however, the provisions of the law of 1903 
respecting tuition were made mandatory, and much 
benefit has been derived from their operation. ^ 

In 1903 there was also enacted a law providing that 
coimty normal training classes ^ might be organized in 
connection with one selected high school in each county. 
Tliis act aimed to provide a body of teachers for the rural 
schools, and while the normal class is separate and dis- 
tinct from the high school proper, the requirements for 
admission to this class are such that its establishment 
has great influence on the high school.^ 

In 1907, an act authorized county schools of agriculture 
and domestic science.* These are not strictly high schools 
in the commonly accepted meaning of the expression. 
Nevertheless this type of school requires for admission 
previous graduation from an eighth-grade course and thus 
is in fact a high school. The work comprises two years, 
but for some imexplained reasons rural peoples have not 
taken kindly to the school. Up to 1915 only two such 
schools had been established. 

Just as the fifty years after 1859 witnessed a grad- 
ual development of greater or less uniformity in the organ- 
ization of the high schools of the state, the elevation 

1 Act 37, Laws of 1909. The law gives parents of children who have com- 
pleted the eighth-grade studies the right to select any one of the three nearest 
high schools and to send their children thereto. The district is then required to 
vote the tuition and may vote the transportation. Further .amendments were 
made to the law in igii and 1913, so that to-day a country boy or girl has approx- 
imately the same legal opportunities for a high-school education as the town or city 
youth. 

2 Act 241, Laws of 1903. 

3 The course is one or two years in length. The one-year course is open to 
(a) graduates of the tenth grade in any high school; (6) holders of a second-grade 
certificate; or persons who have taught two years in any public school. The 
second year is open to (a) those having passed the first year's work; (b) graduates 
of a four-year high school; or persons holding a first-grade certificate. {Report, 
1903, p. 39.) In 1907 thirty-two such clsisses had been formed. In 191S the 
number had grown to forty-five. 

4 Act 35, Laws of 1907. 



The High-School Era 223 

of the standards of scholarship, and the increased flexi- 
bihty in the courses of study, so did they produce a 
marked change in the scope and content of the school 
program. Before 1849, as we have seen, the old, narrow, 
classical curriculiim had given place, to a large extent, 
to scientific branches. Indeed, as one studies the pro- 
grams of the middle period of the century one is inclined 
to think that there was an excess of zeal in this respect. 
The old curricula had demanded from three to five years' 
work in Latin and two or three in Greek. The new 
curricula seemed to think that equality could not be 
demonstrated unless a like period of time was devoted 
to science. Inasmuch, however, as one course or partial 
course was at that time sufficiently long to exhaust the 
knowledge of the subject, and since the idea of laboratory 
experiments had scarcely taken form in college courses, 
to say nothing of high-school science work, the efforts 
that to-day are usually concentrated on two or four sci- 
entific branches were then spread over the whole field. 
The result was an elementary and hence superficial 
knowledge of six or seven sciences. Those most com- 
monly foimd in the better and larger schools included 
physiology, physical geography, botany, zoology, astron- 
omy, chemistry, natural philosophy, and geology. Each 
usually covered not more than two terms' work. 

While thus, at this early time, science and the classics 
were jealously jostling each other for advantages in the 
ctirriculiun, there was little or no attention given to cer- 
tain other subjects which to-day hold an honored place 
in the schools. The study of English, for example, con- 
sisted of scarcely more than a term or two of formal 
grammar and exercises in analysis of words and parsing. 
The rich fields of literature lay unexplored and almost 
imknown. Now and then the elements of rhetoric were 



224 Public Secondary Education 

studied, but the approach was deductive and yielded 
impoverished results. 

In the sphere of history one or two courses, covering 
two terms and intended chiefly to aid the classical student, 
constituted, for the most part, the "entire offering. The 
course was styled "General History," but it began with 
the Greeks and ended with the Romans, with brief — 
very brief — mention of world-facts lying outside this 
compass. The study of American history was practically 
unheard of in 1859. 

Modem foreign-language study was just beginning to 
receive respectful recognition, but was still confined to 
the larger and more progressive schools. The classics 
and the sciences, with some mathematics, virtually pre- 
empted the entire high-school field fifty years ago, and 
left only the interstices for other branches. Then came 
a change — almost a revolution. 

Although there was a semblance of likeness in the larger 
features of the high-school curricula, there was no close 
uniformity even here. Each school program shows in- 
dividual characteristics. Perhaps a typical one is the 
following. It is the program of studies for the Grand 
Rapids High School for 1862. It is divided into two 
courses, namely, the English Course of three years' dura- 
tion and the Classical Course of five years. The year 
was divided into three terms. 

The Program of Studies for the Grand Rapids 
High School for the Year 1862I 

ENGLISH COURSE 
YEAR TERM 

f 1st Arithmetic, Physiology, Ancient History. 

j 2d Algebra, Physical Geography, Modern History, Analysis 

I of English Language. 

I 3d Algebra, Botany, Zoology, Analysis and Parsing. 

1 School report for 1862 in Report of Superinlendent of Public Instruction, 1862, 
pp. 99 #. 



3 { 



The High-School Era 225 

YEAR TERM ENGLISH COURSE — continued 

I 1st Geometry, Botany, Zoology, Astronomy. 
2 < 2d Geometry, Higher Algebra, Chemistry, Astronomy. 
( 3d Higher Algebra, Chemistry, Geology, Natural Philosophy. 

1st Trigonometry, Geology, Mental Philosophy and Logic, 

Rhetoric. 
2d Mental Philosophy, Rhetoric, Household Science, Ancient 

Geography. 
3d Household Science, Civil Government, Moral Philosophy, 

Reviews. 

CLASSICAL COURSE 

YEAR TERM 

I 1st Latin Grammar, Higher Arithmetic, Physiology. 

1 J 2d Latin Reader, Elementary Algebra, Modern History. 
I 3d Latin Reader, Elementary Algebra, Botany 

j 1st Latin Reader, Botany, English Analysis and Parsing. 

2 < 2d Sallust, Chemistry, Physical Geography. 
I 3d SaUust, Chemistry, Zoology. 

( 1st Sallust, Ancient History, Geometry. 

I 2d Vergil, Higher Algebra, Geometry, Rhetoric. 

1 3d Vergil, Greek Grammar, Higher Algebra, Natural Philos- 

( ophy. 

( 1st Vergil, Greek Grammar and Reader, Trigonometry, 
Astronomy. 

4 < 2d Cicero, Latin Prose Composition, Greek Grammar and 

Reader, Astronomy. 
3d Cicero, Latin Prose Composition, Xenophon, Geology. 

I 1st Livy, Anabasis, Mental Philosophy and Logic, Geology. 

5 <; 2d Tacitus, Homer, Household Science, Mental Philosophy. 
I 3d Horace, Homer, Household Science, Moral Philosophy. 

One notes in this program illustrations of the general 
assertions just made respecting the disproportionate 
emphasis on certain branches, and the total or large neg- 
lect of others. Here are eight sciences, and two and one- 
third years of mathematics in both courses. English 
and English literature are represented by two terms 

16 



226 Public Secondary Education 

devoted to analysis, parsing, and rhetoric. History is 
accorded an obscure place and disposed of in two terms, 
while modem foreign-language study is conspicuous by 
its entire absence. There are, from the viewpoint of the 
present day, many other serious faults of omission. 
There are no "commercial" or business subjects; no 
manual training; no political economy or other social 
science save perchance civil government. In Latin and 
Greek, formal grammar leads the way. All courses are 
of short duration and seemingly stand in no perfect 
logical order. Mental and moral philosophy still hold 
their time-honored rank. 

A study of other programs of study reveals similar 
conditions throughout the state, the subject-matter 
varying with the personal views of the officials and with 
the traditions of the community.^ 

At about this same time in connection with many high 
schools, there were established so-called teachers' depart- 
ments. The aim of these was to give prospective teachers 
of rural and city schools a general review of the subjects 
to be taught, together with suggestions respecting methods 
of presentation and of discipline. These departments 
rested wholly upon authorization of local school boards, but 
in 1863 the Superintendent of Public Instruction declared 
"these classes are now common to most of our high 
schools. "2 The following year he urged the legislature 
to give them legal authorization throughout the state.' 

During this early period some little sentiment seems to 
have arisen in favor of offering Latin in the grammar 

IThe program at Monroe in 1862 included: (a) Mathematics: Written and 
Mental Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry; (6) Science: Geography, 
Physiology, Botany, Physical Geography, Natural Philosophy, Geology, Astron- 
omy, Chemistry; (c) English: Grammar, Rhetoric, Analysis of English Language; 
(d) History: U.S. History, English History, General History, Civics; (e) Phi- 
losophy: Mental and Moral Philosophy; (/) Language: Greek, Latin, French, 
and German; (g) Book-keeping. (Report, 1862, p. 151.) 

2 Report, 1863, p. 71. 

3 Ibid., 1864, p. 29. 



The High-School Era 227 

grades, for such pupils as expected to continue through 
the high school and college, but the idea received little 
practical encouragement.^ 

In the meantime, as we have seen in earlier pages of this 
chapter, the university had not only increased the num- 
ber of courses in the Literary Department, but had insti- 
tuted higher reqmrements for admission. It had also 
begim to allow some small opportunity for free election 
of studies in the senior year, and had begun to use labor- 
atory methods in science. Now the high schools modified 
their programs in harmony. In the school reports for 
1874 nearly every high school boasted of what then 
seemed an adequate supply of school apparatus, including 
chemical and philosophical equipment and instruments, 
maps, charts,, and so on. Grand Rapids led the proces- 
sion with apparatus valued at twenty thousand dollars. 
Detroit claimed eight thousand dollars thus invested. 
The supplies in other cities and towns ranged in value 
from zero to two thousand dollars, but in by far the 
larger number of schools there was less than five hundred 
dollars worth of eqmpment all told.^ 

Few schools possessed high-school libraries of any 
significance. 

Perhaps the best survey of the scope of the work given 
in the high schools thirty-five years ago can be had from 
the following statistical reports collected and compiled 
by Superintendent J. C. Jones of Pontiac, in 1874.^ 

Statistics from 28 selected high schools in 1874: Total 
enrollment, 2,748; average enrollment per school, 98; 
pupils enrolled in different subjects as follows: Latin, 

1 Ibid., p. 198. 

2 Report, 1874, Table C, p. Ixv. 

3 The paper containing these data was read before the meeting of the State 
Teachers' Association held at Kalamazoo in that year, and is printed in full in the 
records of that society. It is also found in Report of Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, 1874, pp. 370 ff. The data were taken from twenty-eight selected 
high schools. 



228 Public Secondary Education 

730; Greek, 156; German, 481 ; French, 283 ; geometry, 584; 
algebra, 1,510; higher arithmetic, 1,024; book-keeping, 314; 
physiology, 540; chemistry, 275; geology, 213; zoology, 
279; natural philosophy, 530; civil government, 283; Eng- 
lish grammar, 1,014; rhetoric, 441 ; English literature, 228; 
United States history, 550; physical geography, 530; gen- 
eral history, 480; Greek history, 149; moral philosophy, 
98; mental philosophy, 117; geometrical drawing, 147; 
astronomy, 175; botany, 207; trigonometry, 42. 

The same report gives the number of instructors in 
these 28 schools as 87, each of whom conducted on an 
average of six and one-half recitations a day, and received 
an average salary of $862.50.^ The per capita cost per 
pupil was $27.50. Of the 2,748 students enrolled, 514 
declared their intention of entering the University of 
Michigan or other colleges. Twenty-three schools found 
strong support in the commtmities, while five met with 
considerable opposition. In 21 schools teachers aided 
pupils to select their courses of study, and all 28 schools 
required rigid adherence to the choice when once it 
was made. Each school had, usually, three parallel 
courses of study based on the courses in the university. 
The high schools averaged three teachers each. 

These statistics, when analyzed, reveal some interesting 
changes from the conditions of twelve years before. 
Modem language had now a firm foothold ; book-keeping 
had quite a following; United States history had secured 
a recognized place in the field, and the study of English 
and English literature was growing. The sciences held 
their rank both in variety of subject-matter and in 
numbers of students. 

There was, however, at this time frequent and loud 
complaint of the overtaxing of pupils. Superintendent 

1 The salaries ol all the superintendents are averased with these figures. 



The High-School Era 229 

Briggs, in his report for 1875,^ declared that there was a 
general tendency over the state to hurry students along 
through the grades to make room for others, and hence 
many youths found themselves in the high schools before 
they were fitted to imdertake the work there. To meet 
these deficiencies the high schools were, he added, obliged 
to devote considerable time to reviews of grade subjects, 
and thus were further hampered and embarrassed in the 
performance of their own true duties. 

To meet the specific needs of the pupils not preparing 
for college, and at the same time to conform to the definite 
demands for higher standards being made by the univer- 
sity, schools began to consolidate and unify their pro- 
grams more and more. Subjects no longer demanded 
for admission to college and having no conceivably direct 
bearing on local needs were one by one lopped off the 
currictilum, and the time thus gained was employed in 
intensifying and prolonging the work on subjects already 
in the program, or else was allotted to new subjects of 
a more "practical" character.^ 

The program of study for the Detroit High School in 
1879 was as follows. The work was arranged in four 
courses — EngHsh, Latin, Classical, and Scientific- — and 
the year was divided into three terms. 

First Years 

COURSE 

English Arithmetic, Algebra, Book-keeping, English Syntax, 

Reading, Spelling. 
Latin Arithmetic, Algebra, Latin Grammar and Reader, 

English Syntax, Reading, Spelling. 

'^Report, 1875, p. Ixv. This is the old perennial cry: "All before me failed 
as teachers. I alone am instructing the youth as he should be instructed." 

2 Grand Rapids, for example, had during the fifteen years preceding 1875 one 
by one omitted frorn its program the following branches: Higher arithmetic; 
higher English analysis; higher algebra; trigonometry; analytical geometry; com- 
position and derivation of words; advanced rhetoric; household science; moral 
philosophy; political economy; science of government; Sallust's Jugurtha; Vergil's 
Eclogues, and selections from Livy, Tacitus, and Horace. (.Report, 1875, p. 356.) 

S Principal's Report, 1879. pp. 81, 82. 



23© 



Public Secondary Education 



cotnisE 
Classical 
Scientific 

COURSE 

English 

Latin 

Classical 
Scientific 



COURSE 

English 

Latin 

Classical 
Scientific 



COURSE 

English 

Latin 

Classical 

Scientific 



COURSE 

English 



Latin 



First Year — continued 

Same as Latin Course. 
Same as English Course. 

Second Year 

Geometry, General History, Zoology, Botany, Spell- 
ing, Reading, English Literature. 

Geometry, General History, Caesar, Latin Prose, 
Spelling, Reading, English Literature. 

Same as the Latin Course with Greek added. 

Geometry, General History, Botany, Zoology, 
English Literature, Spelling, French (optional). 

Third Year 

Algebra, English Literature, English Syntax, Essays, 
Rhetoric. 

Geometry, English Syntax, Essays, Cicero and Vergil, 
Latin Prose, French. 

Same as the Latin Course with Greek added. 

Geometry, English Syntax, Essays, English Litera- 
ture, French. 

Fourth Year (by terms) 

FIRST TERM 

Arithmetic (review). Natural Philosophy, Mental 
Philosophy, Astronomy, Orations, Essays. 

Arithmetic (review). Solid Geometry, Vergil, Latin 
Prose (review), French, Orations, Essays. 

Arithmetic (review). Solid Geometry, Vergil, Latin 
Prose, Greek History, Anabasis, Greek Prose, 
Orations, Essays. 

Natural Philosophy, Solid Geometry, French, Draw- 
ing, English Literature, Orations, Essays. 

second term 

Arithmetic (review). Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, 

Local Geography (review), Chemistry, Orations, 

Essays. 
Arithmetic (review). Algebra, Roman History, 

Vergil, Latin Prose (review), French, Orations, 

Essays. 



The High-School Era 



231 



COURSE 

Classical 



Scientific 



COURSE 

English 



Latin 



Classical 



Scientific 



SECOND TERM — continued 

Arithmetic (review), Algebra, Roman History, 
Vergil, Latin Prose (review), Greek History, 
Anabasis, Greek Prose, Orations, Essays. 
Algebra, Natural Philosophy, Local Geography 
(review). Drawing, French, Orations, Essays. 

THIRD TERM 

Natural Philosophy, United States History, United 
States Civil Government (review), Chemistry, 
Orations, Essays. 

Algebra (review). Geometry (review), Roman History, 
Vergil, Latin Prose (review), French, Orations, 
Essays. 

Algebra (review), Geometry (review), Anabasis, 
Greek Prose, Roman History, Greek History, 
Vergil, Latin Prose (review), Orations, Essays. 

Natural Philosophy, United States History, Algebra 
(review), Geometry (review). United States Civil 
Government (review), French, Mechanical Drawing, 
Orations, Essays.^ 

In order to help bring system out of the confusion and 
to encourage the acceptance of a uniform program of 
studies for the entire state, the Association of City Super- 
intendents in 1875 drew up and recommended a specific 
plan. The Superintendent of Public Instruction approved 
the recommendation, published it in his annual report, and 
circulated it with the further co-recommendation of the 
State Department. But few schools seem to have 
adopted the scheme in toto, and only slowly were programs 
reshaped to conform to it in all its more important aspects. 

The recommendation follows:^ 

1 The textbooks in most common use thirty-five years ago were: Mathematics: 
Olney's, Robinson's, Ray's, and Davies' texts; General History: Swinton's and 
Anderson's texts; Rhetoric: Hart's and Quackenbos' texts; Physiology: Steele's, 
Dalton's, Loomis', and Brown's texts; Botany: Gray's and Wood's texts; Zool- 
ogy: Tenney's, Steele's, Smellie's texts; Natural Philosophy and Chemistry: 
Cooley's, Steele's, Norton's, Well's, Ho9ker's, and Quackenbos' texts. {Report, 
1877, p. xix.) Here too, it is observed, is little uniformity. 

2 Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1876, p. xlix. 



232 Public Secondary Education 

Year Term Subject-Matter 

\ I Algebra, Composition, Physiology. 

2 Algebra, Grammar, Zoology. 

3 Algebra, Analysis, Botany. 

1 Arithmetic, General History, Botany,Physical Geography. " 

2 Arithmetic, General History, Botany, Physical Geography. 

3 Book-keeping, General History, Science of Government. 

1 Geometry, French or German, Natural Philosophy. 

2 Geometry, French or German, Natural Philosophy. 
I 3 Geometry, French or German, Rhetoric. 

ii Algebra, French or German, Rhetoric. 
2 Algebra, French or German, English Literature. 
3 Geometrical Drawing, French or German, English 
Literature. 

One is impressed at once by a survey of this plan with 
the happy simpHcity of the whole. What a sweeping 
away of diversified subject-matter there is ! A movement 
toward concentration is very apparent, but even yet the 
sciences are more or less "chopped up." There are, too, 
grave faults of omission. The "practical" subjects are 
represented alone by book-keeping. United States his- 
tory is lacking. The English work is not well arranged. 
No reference is made to the classical languages, but since 
the plan was drawn for all schools one would expect this 
omission. Obviously, schools that desired to incor- 
porate a Classical Coiu-se were expected to do so. The 
whole plan, however, points plainly in the direction of a 
simplified curriculum, and hence, by impUcation, to a 
curtailment of individual and local choices. The actual 
trend, however, was just the opposite. 

At least as early as 1876^ there was to be found in some 

1 Grand Rapids in this year allowed a choice between book-keeping and history 
but in the English Course only. In 1880 the whole senior work in this course was 
elective. (Principal's Report, 1876, p. 285, and Board of Education Report, 1880, 
p. 30.) East Saginaw, in its report of 1876, also speaks of introducing a free 
election of studies. (Report, 1876, p. 328.) This report adds: "It popularizes 
without destroying the efficiency of the v/ork." 



TJie High-School Era 233 

high schools the inception of the principle of individual 
election. By 1880 the idea had gained quite a respectable 
clientele, but was still rarely found in practice. 

In 1 88 1 in the State Teachers' Association a plea was 
made for industrial training in the schools, but appar- 
ently left no impression sufficiently strong to excite to 
action.^ Still, there was growing more and more a feeling 
that the high schools should better meet the local and 
practical needs — that they did not exist primarily to 
prepare for college.^ 

A state law enacted in 1884 made it obligatory on every 
public school of the state — both elementary and second- 
ary — to offer prescribed courses in physiology and 
hygiene, treated with especial reference to the effects of 
narcotics and alcohol upon the himian body.^ This law, 
together with the requirements of the university respecting 
physics and botany, made these three sciences commonly 
prescribed subjects in practically every com^se of all the 
better schools. 

For the next ten years the program of studies, on the 
whole, remained virtually unchanged. Individual schools 
modified their work somewhat by curtailing or eliminating 
certain subjects that were not in especial favor in the 
community and by adding such as the people desired.^ 
There was, therefore, still no imiformity. Pupils passing 
from one town and school to another often foimd more or 
less difficulty in adjusting themselves to the new condi- 
tions. Not infrequently by such removal they lost one 
full year's credit toward graduation. 

To obviate these disadvantages and to improve the 

1 Paper read by Mr. F. E. Clark of Orchard Lake. (Report of 1881. pp. 289 #.) 

2 Resolution of State Teachers' Association, 1880. 

3 Laws of 1884, Chap. 3, Sec. 15. 

< Adrian, for example, in 1876 dropped astronomy, zoology, and geology from 
the program, and reduced the study of algebra to one year. Civics and drawing 
were added. (Report, 1876, p. 222.) 



234 Public Secondary Edtication 

situation in general, the State Teachers' Association 
again in 1894 appointed a committee to wrestle with the 
question and to draft a new program of studies for the 
guidance of all the schools of the state.^ This com- 
mittee formulated and reported a number of resolu- 
tions, based in large measure upon the suggestions made 
by the National Committee of Ten.^ The most salient 
recommendations made by the local committee were: 

1. That the recommendations of the Committee of Ten be adopted 

respecting the study of foreign language and mathematics 
in the eighth grade, and also respecting the study of English 
in the high school. 3 

2. That a year's work in general history be required of all students 

in the tenth grade. 

3. That physics be taught in the twelfth grade. 

4. That botany be taught the second semester of the ninth grade. 

5. That no pupil be permitted to carry more than sixteen hours 

of recitation per week during the first two years of the high 
school, and not more than eighteen in the last two years.'* 

The committee then proposed the following scheme of 
studies for all schools, recognizing the four standard 
courses — Classical, Latin, Scientific, and English — and 
appraising the different subjects by means of points or 
credits or units. ^ Sixty-eight and one-half units were to 
be required for graduation from any coiirse. Of these, 
37 points were constant for all. These were: Eng- 
lish, 12 points; general history, 5 points; algebra, 7^-2 
points; geometry, 5 points; botany, 2>^ points; and 

1 This committee convened in final meeting at Ann Arbor, June 28, 1895. 

2 The Committee of Ten reported in December, 1893. 

3 These were that Latin or German be begun in the eighth grade as alternates 
(optionals) with English grammar; that concrete geometry and algebra be given 
a large place in the eighth grade; and that four years' work in English be offered 
in the high school. (See Report of Committee of Ten.) 

* In the original draft of their resolutions the committee also recommended 
that two years of foreign language be required of all students in the eleventh and 
twelfth grades, but in their later draft this provision was eliminated. {Report, 
1895. p. 8s.) 

6 A point, or unit, signified one recitation per week for one year. Ten points, 
for example, signified five recitations per week for a period of two years. 



The High-School Era 235 

physics, 5 points. Additional subjects to be reqtured in 
the different courses were: 



Classical 




Latin-Scientific 




SUBJECT 

Latin 


POINTS 
20 


SUBJECT 

Latin 


POINTS 

20 


Greek 


ID 


French or German 


10 


Elective 


iy2 


Elective 


IJ^ 


Total 


31}^ 


Total 


3^'A 


Scientific 




English 




SUBJECT 

U.S. History and Civics 
Foreign Language 
Chemistry 
Elective 


POINTS 

5 
20 

5 


SUBJECT 

English Literature 
English. History 
U.S. History 
Arithmetic and Book- 


POINTS 
5 

5 

5 


Total 


31K 


keeping 
Chemistry 
Laboratory Science 
Physiology 
Elective 


2J^ 

5 

5 



Total 31}^ 

The committee then distributed this program over 
four years' time and thus offered to the various schools 
of the state a definite scheme for their guidance. While 
of course there was no legal power attached to the recom- 
mendations, they did, as the earlier ones, tend greatly 
to standardize the work. 

Obviously, in the minds of the committee the idea of 
rigid parallel courses — however nimierous — was not 
satisfactory. While their scheme afforded httle oppor- 
tunity for free individual choice, the principle of individual 
election was, in a small degree, recognized as applicable 
to all schools just as it had already been recognized in a 
limited way in the imiversity. 

Three years later, before the same association of 
teachers, Superintendent A. S. Whitney of Saginaw advo- 
cated the reduction of all courses to two — a "fitting," 



236 Public Secondary Education 

or college-preparatory course; and a "finishing," or non- 
preparatory coiirse. He also urged the following reforms: 
(i) beginning two foreign languages in the seventh and 
eighth grades — the modem language coming first; (2) dis- 
tributing the time allotted to the various subjects over 
a longer period; (3) introducing manual training, domestic 
science, and commercial subjects more extensively into 
the high schools; (4) granting high-school credit for suc- 
cessful work done outside the high school in music, 
painting, and drawing; (5) introducing more liberal 
courses of civics, sociology, and economics ; (6) increasing 
the total number of recitation periods per week by per- 
mitting some "unprepared recitations"; and (7) making 
all subjects beyond the ninth grade purely elective, save 
perchance English.^ 

During the next few years the greater number of the 
better high schools of the state began to revise their work 
in line with these suggestions.^ Every year witnessed 
the further extension of the elective system, though the 
old courses of study were usually retained as suggestive 
guides pointing to more or less definitely perceived ends. 
In some schools these suggestive courses were but two — 
the college preparatory and the non-preparatory. In 
other schools they took the names "University of Michi- 
gan Literary Course," "University of Michigan Medical 
Course," "Normal School Course," "Wellesley Course," 
"Business Course," and others similarly. Each course 
contained the subjects that seemed best suited to lead 
to the ends conceived but no pupil was compelled to hold 
rigidly to the advice. 

1 Proceedings of State Teachers' Association, 1898, in Report of Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, 1898, pp. 180 ff. 

2 It is not meant to imply that the movement was not already under way before 
1898. It was, and the ideas suggested by Professor Whitney were, in part, already 
in successful operation in some schools of the state. His advice gave momentum 
to the reform. 



The High-School Era 237 

Under the new ideals the program of studies 
recommended in 1895 seemed obsolete. Again, shortly 
after this date, therefore, the State Teachers' Associa- 
tion appointed a commission to "investigate the courses 
of study pursued in the high schools of the state and to 
recommend a imiform course of study for the same." 
This new commission, consisting of many of Michigan's 
foremost educators both in college and in secondary work, 
reported their decisions in 1905. The document is a 
valuable one, and the recommendations therein have 
since been accepted by many high schools of the state. 
The program of studies advised includes the following: 
Latin, 4 years; Greek, 2; English, 4; German, 4; French, 4; 
music, 4; history, 4; mathematics, 3 or 4; sciences, 4; 
drawing, 4; domestic art, 4; domestic science, 4; woodwork, 
4; and ironwork, 4.^ 

One still finds in Michigan a great variety of programs 
of studies, but imdemeath the apparent differences there 
is a common foundation; there is to-day a closer approx- 
imation to unity in the midst of the diversity. In almost 
all the larger schools and in many of the smaller there are 
offered to the youth rich menus from which each may 
appropriate what is best suited to his nature. The 
languages, the sciences, the social subjects, literature, art, 
and the "practical" studies are all there, nor is there any 
deep-seated jealousy among them. Each meets a felt need. 

Respecting the academical preparations of high-school 
teachers during the period under consideration there are 
no available data. Of course every teacher was obliged 
to hold a legal certificate of some kind. The standards, 

1 See Report, p. IQ. Manual training work had begun to find a place in some 
schools early in the nineties, Bay City, for example, introducing it in a small way in 
1891. (Report, 1900, pp. 37 ff.) The most active movement, however, did not 
come until considerably later. Even yet few schools offer the work for more than 
one or two years in the high-school grades. (Report, 1905, Statistical Tables.) 
In 191S only 86 of the cities and towns in the state provided work of any kind 
throughout their entire systems, {Repcn-l, 1915, pp. 180 ff.) 



238 Public Secondary Education 

however, differed widely with different communities 
and at different times.^ Apparently most of the super- 
intendents or principals, together with the teachers 
of language, were college traiiied or had pursued work 
in a normal school. As schools developed and higher 
standards of attainments were made, a normal or col- 
lege diploma became an essential qualification of appoint- 
ment. For many years, however, the majority of 
teachers in the high schools were those who had received 
only a normal-school training. In more recent years, 
however, the standard has been set at graduation from 
a college offering a four-year cotirse. To-day, in all the 
larger and stronger schools this is the unvarying rule. 
But in the smaller schools only a small minority of the 
teachers are college graduates. 

In 1874 the university adopted the policy of granting 
to its graduates of especial merit a special "Teacher's 
Diploma." ^ In 1879 there was established in the Uni- 
versity of Michigan the first chair of the Science and Art 
of Teaching that was found in a state university in 
America.^ Though no legal certificate was given students 
pursuing work in this department, its organization 
obviously stimulated the scholastic training of teachers.* 
In 1 89 1, however, the dignity and value of the pedagogical 
studies were enhanced by a legislative act authorizing the 
faculty of Literature, Science, and the Arts to grant a 
teacher's certificate, valid throughout the state during the 
life of the holder, to such students as took an academic 

1 In 1873, in answer to a circular sent out by Superintendent Briggs, T43 of the 
311 union schools made replies. In these 143 schools 84 had high-school depart- 
ments. In these 143 schools were employed 1,361 teachers, of whom 59 held 
state certificates; 83, normal-school diplomas; and 89, college diplomas. These 
figures include the superintendents and principals. (.Report, 1873, pp. 28#.) 

2 This "Diploma" had no legal validity. It was signed by the pres- 
ident and by the professor who had had charge of the work, and was an official 
recommendation only. 

3 President's Report, 1880. Superintendent Payne of Adrian was the first 
incumbent of this oflSce. 

* Students could now secure academic training and professional training in the 
same institution, and at the same time gain an academic degree. 



The High-School Era 



239 



degree.^ In harmony with this act the faculty voted to 
require of such candidates a minimum of work in the 
Department of the Science and Art of Teaching. 

Two years later a similar legislative act authorized the 
State Board of Education to grant life certificates to 
graduates of other colleges of the state, provided such 
colleges offered each a full four years' course leading to a 
degree, and required at least eleven semester hours' work 
in their Department of Education.^ 

The normal school had naturally from its earliest 
organization enjoyed the privilege of certificating teachers.' 
These new statutes gave the colleges equal advantages. 
In consequence, prospective teachers who could afford 
four years of post high-school preparation, more and more 
sought the colleges, and hence larger numbers of college- 
trained teachers have in recent years gone back into the 
high schools.^ In very recent years the standards set by 
the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary 
Schools have caused many high schools to reject all 
applications from candidates who hold no college degree. 

1 Act 144, Laws of 1891. 

2 Act 136, Laws of 1893. Eleven "hours" would be approximately one third 
of the work allowed to be carried in one college year; or nearly one whole semester's 
work. After the law of 1893, the faculty of the university also set eleven hours 
as the minimum requirement of pedagogical study leading to a life certificate. 

3 Act of establishment, 1849, gave this privilege. 

4 The following table shows the recent tendencies at the university: 



YEAR 


NUMBER GRADUATES 


NUMBER SENIORS 




LITERARY COLLEGE 


PLANNING TO TEACH 


PER CENT 


1904- 5 


310 


154 


48 


1905- 6 


297 


157 


53 


1906- 7 


319 


160 


50 


1907- 8 


323 


178 


55 


1908- 9 


362 


192 


53 


1909-10 


356 


197 


56 


1910-11 


359 


213 


59 


1911-12 


394 


199 


51 


1912-13 


407 


228 


56 


1913-14 


479 


243 


51 


1914-15 


493 


285 


57 



During the first semester, 1915-16, a total of 533 students were taking work 
in the Department of Education. 



240 Public Secondary Education 

All these regulations have obviously had great influence 
upon the secondary schools. The college-bred teacher, 
being possessed of a greater degree of liberal culture and 
holding high ideals of scholarship, has, as a rule, carried 
into the high school a spirit that has been stimulating to 
intellectual effort and also has modified the standards of 
social intercourse and personal decorum. College ideals 
have been transplanted to the lower schools, and ambi- 
tions for college careers have been implanted and fos- 
tered in souls that might otherwise never have been 
awakened. Indeed, the personal influence of a generous, 
Hberal, refined, and cultured man or woman — who can 
estimate it? 

The clientele supporting the public high schools of the 
state is as varied as society itself. In the early days of 
these schools the charge was made — most often, we must 
think, from ulterior motives — that they were exclusive 
and aristocratic. To refute these charges Superintendent 
Gass in 1883 gathered statistics respecting the family 
affiliations of high-school pupils, and found to his great 
satisfaction that the high schools were the very centers 
of democracy. Not only was this fact revealed in the 
constituency of the pupils, but also in their daily asso- 
ciations and ideals.^ Children of the wealthy and the 
poor, of the professional classes and the non-professional 
classes, sit side by side and enter upon relations of close 
social intimacy. There is little trace of snobbishness or 
of feelings of social inferiority. In the high schools of 
Michigan all are equal nominally and, in large measure, 
actually. 

The average number of pupils per teacher has varied 

1 Mr. Gass studied the conditions in thirty-six high schools. In Detroit he 
found 56 per cent of the pupils of the high school were children of non-taxpayers 
and that 33 per cent were from the so-called working classes. In the other thirty- 
five schools 34 per cent of the pupils were children of farmers, and 26 per cent of 
mechanics and laborers, 21 per cent made no reply to bis questions. (Report, 
1883, pp. xi and xli.) 



The High-School Era 241 

from school to school and from one year to another. In 
1883 the average of nine cities and towns was thirty-four 
per teacher.^ 

The average age of pupils graduating from the high 
schools about 1870 was nearly nineteen and one-half 
years. By 1890 this had been reduced by one full year 
at least, owing largely to the superior organization of the 
schools, improved methods of instruction, and the gener- 
ally enhanced financial conditions of society. Since 1890 
there has been a further decrease in this regard.^ 

Toward the latter period of the era under discussion, 
organized high-school athletics came to play an important 
role in nearly every community. At first taking on a 
local form, the interest in these activities soon came to be 
an intercommunity affair, and finally as wide as the state. 
Interscholastic meetings of various kinds had by 1890 
obtained a firm foothold in the school life of the larger 
schools and even in many small schools. Indeed, the 
fear was not unfounded that there was too great an inter- 
est centered about these affairs. Opinion was expressed 
that the schools were getting away from their intellectual 
ideals and from true standards of propriety and even 
of morality. To regulate and control these activities 
in the interest of school harmony, clean sport, and due 
proportion, the high-school section of the state Teachers' 
Association in 1895 appointed a committee to devise a 
plan of agreement to govern state interscholastic activities, 
and to nominate a Board of Directors to supervise all 
inter-high-school athletic contests.' 

1 Monroe's average was i8; Battle Creek's, 22; Kalamazoo's, 23; Detroit's, 
25; Flint's, 30. Ann Arbor's, 35 ; Hillsdale's, 42; Hastings', 52; and Ithaca's, 58. 
{Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction. 1883, pp. lx#.) 

These same schools in 1913-14 showed the following averages: Monroe, 19; 
Battle Creek, 26; Kalamazoo, 16; Detroit, 21; Flint, 22; Ann Arbor, 22; Hillsdale, 
24; Hastings, 28; Ithaca, 21. (Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
1913-14. PP- 180 ff.) 

2 Comparisons of statistics found in Reports of Superintendents of Public 
Instruction. 

3 Report, 1896, p. 33S. 

17 



242 Public Secondary Education 

After due consideration this committee recommended 
a plan which became the basis for determining future 
athletic meetings.^ From that day to this, athletics has 
played a leading role throughout the state, but it has 
been rigidly subjected to official supervision and control. 

Thus in almost every aspect the high schools of 
Michigan have been keeping step with progress. Dur- 
ing that whole period of fifty years, which is so aptly 
called the High-School Period, one word alone best 
describes the whole situation. This is the word growth — 
steady, healthful, many-sided growth. There has been 
growth in pubHc sentiment favorable to the high schools; 
there has been growth in friendly legislative action and 
in the resources dedicated to high-school piirposes; there 
has been growth in ninnbers of schools established and 
in new buildings erected; there has been growth in enroll- 
ment and in attendance; there has been growth in the 
richness of the program of study and in the methods of 
its adjustment to individual needs; there has been growth 
in eqtiipment, and in the teaching force; there has been 
an enhancement of the social rank of the teachers; and, 
finally, there has been growth in professional spirit and 
in the ideals and ambitions that dominate parents, pupils, 
and teachers alike. 

In a later book an effort will be made to note the 
contemporary tendencies and to analyze them in the 
hght of this historic past. 

1 The salient parts of the adopted agreement were: (a) Every contestant must 
be carrying at least ten weekly hours of work, and must be doing satisfactory 
work in these ten hours. (6) No person was allowed to compete for more than 
five seasons, (c) No person was permitted to compete in athletics of the second 
semester who had not been enrolled in the school from October I to March I, 
and was still a member of the school. 



APPENDIX A 

Course of Study for County Normal Training Classes in 

Michigan in Bulletin i of 1908, Issued by the State 

Superintendent of Public Instruction 

Qualifications for Admission to Classes 

1. All applicants for admission must be at least seventeen years of age at the 

time of entrance. 

2. They must subscribe to the following declaration: I hereby declare that 

my object in asking admission to the training class is to prepare myself 
for teaching, and it is my purpose to engage in teaching in the rural schools, 
or in schools of not more than two departments, at the completion of such 
preparation, and I pledge myself to serve the state faithfully in such 
school, during the life of my certificate. I pledge myself to remain in the 
class during the year unless prevented by sickness or excused by the county 
normal board. 

3. All applicants must possess a good moral character. 

4. Applicants must possess these academic qualifications to enter training 

classes: 

(o) Any person who is a graduate of a graded school having at least a 
course of ten grades in its curriculum. 

(6) Any person who is a holder of at least a second-grade certificate, or 

shall pass a second-grade examination. 
(e) Any person who has had two years of successful experience in teaching 

in the public schools. 

Note. — These should be strictly observed. 

Course of Study 

first quarter third quarter 

Psychology Practice Teaching 

Reading, Spelling, Writing Pedagogy 

English (Language Work) Geography 

Arithmetic United States History 

Manual Training Civics and School Law 
Observation (last four weeks) 

second quarter ' fourth quarter 

Psychology and Pedagogy Practice Teaching 

Classics (Literary Study) Pedagogy and School Management 

Grammar Geography (three weeks). Physiology 

Arithmetic and Book-keeping (six weeks) 

State Course of Study United States History 

Observation Elementary Agriculture 

Notes. — i. Music and drawing alternate through the year. 

2. Sufficient time should be given in the second quarter for a specific 
study of the State Course of Study as a whole. 

3'. Daily work in the subjects specified for each quarter. 

4. In connection with reading, language, arithmetic, and geography 
present proper primary methods, and also give special lessons 
on general primary methods. 

243 



244 



Public Secondary Education 



APPENDIX B 
State of Michigan High-School Course in Agriculture, Sug- 
gested BY THE Department of Agricultural Education 
of the Michigan Agricultural College 

Course 



pth Grade 


loth Grade 


nth Grade 


12th Grade 


English 


English 


Literature and 


Literature and 






Composition 


Rhetoric 


Algebra 


Geometry 


Physics 


Chemistry 


Arithmetic and 


General History 


Commercial Geog- 


American History 


Book-keeping 




raphy; Zoology 


and Civics 


Botany 


Crops (el.) 1 


Live Stock, types | 


Live Stock, im- ] 




Soils and V § 


and breeds > J 


provement, I i 
feeds and f ' 




tillage ) 


Dairying ) 








feeding ) 


Agricultural 


Horticulture ) i 
Entomology j ^ 


Soils ) 




Botany 


and soil phys- > i 








ics j 


Poultry 

Farm manage- 
ment 

Farm Me- >i 
chanics 

Farm Machin- 
ery ) 



APPENDIX C 

A Typical Small School System 

Brown City High School Course of Study 







REQUIRED 


ELECTIVE 


First Year 


First 
Semester 


Composition and Litera- 
ture, Algebra 


Latin, Physiology, An- 
cient History 


Second 
Semester 


Composition and Litera- 
ture, Algebra 


Latin, Botany, Ancient 
History 


Second Year 


First 
Semester 


Composition and Litera- 
ture, Plane Geometry 


Ceesar, Physical Geog- 
raphy, Medieval His- 
tory 


Second 
Semester 


Composition and Litera- 
ture, Plane Geometry 


Caesar, Physical Geog- 
raphy, Medieval His- 
tory 


Third Year 


First 
Semester 


English 


Cicero, German, Chem- 
istry, Advanced Al- 
gebra 


Second 
Semester 


English 


Cicero, German, Chem- 
istry, Solid Geometry 


Fourth Year 


First 
Semester 


Physics, Civics and 
United States History 


Vergil, English Litera- 
ture, German, Book- 
keeping 


Second 

Semester 


Physics, Civics and 
United States History 


Vergil, English Litera- 
ture, German, Re- 
views 



Appendixes 



24S 



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246 



Public Secondary Education 



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Appendixes 247 



APPENDIX E 

Entrance Requirements of the College of Literature, 

Science, and the Arts, of the University of Michigan, 

Taken from the Official Catalogue of 19 14-15 

Admission of Candidates for a Degree 

Admission to this College is gained only by examination or by 
certificate. Applicants for admission must be at least sixteen years 
of age, and must have completed the requirements for admission 
as here described. Fifteen units are required for admission, a unit 
meaning the equivalent of five recitations a week in one branch of 
study for one year, amotonting in the aggregate to not less than one 
hundred twenty sixty-minute hours in the clear. Two to three 
hours of laboratory, drawing, or shop-work will be counted as 
equivalent to one of recitation. 

admission on examination 

The fifteen units presented for admission on examination must 
all be chosen from Group I. They must embrace two subjects of 
three units each, and must include three units of English Composition 
and Literature, two units of a Foreign Language, one unit of Algebra 
and one of Geometry, and one unit of one of the sciences. Physics, 
Chemistry, Botany, or Zoology. 

admission on certificate 

Plan A . The fifteen units presented for admission on certificate 
(except by those entering from especially approved schools, see 
Plan B) must include three units of English Composition and Lit- 
erature, two units of a Foreign Language, one unit of Algebra and 
one of Geometry, and one unit of one of the sciences, Physics, 
Chemistry, Botany, or Zoology; and may include not more than 
three units from Group 11. They must embrace two subjects of 
three units each from Group I. It is, however, strongly recom- 
mended that one or more studies be pursued throughout the four 
years of the high-school course. 

Plan B. Graduates of schools on the approved list of the North 
Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools will be 
admitted upon the presentation of an unqualified recommendation 



248 Public Secondary Education 

covering not less than fifteen units, of "which at least twelve must 
be from Group I. Admission on this basis of recommendation may 
be granted also to the graduates of other especially approved schools. 

Applicants for admission who intend to enter the Combined Curriculum in 
Letters and Medicine must oflfer two units of Latin. They are also strongly 
advised to present Trigonometry, Physics, and Chemistry. Those who enter 
without these subjects will ordinarily need to attend one Summer Session in 
addition to the regular term prescribed for the course. 

SUBJECTS ACCEPTED FOR ADMISSION 

The subjects from which choice may be made, and the number 
of units which will be accepted in each subject, are as follows: 

Group I 

English Composition and Literature, 3 or 4 units 

Greek, 2 or 3 units Trigonometry, 5^ unit 

Latin, 2, 3, or 4 units Physics, l unit 

French, 2, 3, or 4 units Chemistry, I unit 

German, 2, 3, or 4 units Botany, K or i unit 

Spanish, 2, 3, or 4 units Zoology, J4 or I unit 

History, i, 2, or 3 units Physiology, K unit 

Algebra, I, iK. or 2 units Geology, K unit 

Geometry, i or iK units Physiography, ^ or i unit 

Three units of science may be oflfered as a three-unit subject. 

In order that a half unit in science may be accepted it must be 
supplemented by a second half unit in science. For this purpose 
the following groupings are suggested: (c) Botany and Zoology; 
(b) Zoology (or Botany) and Physiology; (c) Physiography and 
Geology; (d) Physiography and Botany. 

Two units of Mathematics and one unit of Physics may be oflfered 
as a three-unit subject, in which case a second tmit of science must 

be presented. 

Group II 
Agriculture, i or 2 units Domestic Science, i or 2 units 

Drawing, ^ or 1 unit Manual Training, I or 2 units 

Commercial Branches, i or 2 units 

Subjects from Group II will not be accepted for admission on 
examination. 

APPENDIX F 
Secondary Schools on the Accredited List of the University 

OF Michigan, 19 14-15 
*Adrian Athens 

*Albion Bad Axe, a 

Allegan Bangor, a 

*Alma *Battle Creek 

*Alpena *Bay City, E. S., a 

*Ann Arbor Bay City, Holy Rosary Acad- 

Ann Arbor, St. Thomas' School emy 

Armada Bay City, St. James Academy 



Appendixes 



249 



Bay City, St. Mary's School 
*Bay City, W. S. 

Belding 

Bellaire 

Bellevue 
*Benton Harbor 

Benzonia Academy 

Berrien Springs 
*Bessemer 
*Big Rapids 

Big Rapids, Ferris Institute 
*Birmingham 

Blissfield 
*Boyne City, a 

Bronson 

Brown City 

Buchanan 
♦Cadillac 
*Calumet 

Care 

Carson City 

Cass City 

Cassopolis 

Cedar Springs 

Central Lake 

Champion 

Charlevoix 
*Charlotte, a 
*Cheboygan 

Chelsea 

Chesaning 

Clare 
*Coldwater 

Coleman 

Coloma 

Colon 

Constantine 

Coopersville 

Corunna 

Croswell, a 
♦Crystal Falls 

Decatur 

Detroit, Cass 
♦Detroit, Central 
♦Detroit, Eastern 
♦Detroit, Liggett 
♦Detroit, McMillan 
♦Detroit, University School 
♦Detroit, Western 

Dexter 
♦Dollar Bay 



♦Dowagiac 

Dundee 

Durand 

East Jordan 

Eaton Rapids 

Elk Rapids 

Elsie 

♦Escanaba, a 
♦Evart, a 

Fenton 
♦Flint 

Flushing, a 

Fowlerville 

Frankfort 
♦Fremont, a 

Galesburg 

Gaylord 
♦Gladstone 

Gladwin 
♦Grand Haven 

Grand Ledge 

Grand Rapids, Catholic H. S. 
for Boys 

Grand Rapids, Catholic H. S. 

for Girls 
♦Grand Rapids, Central 
♦Grand Rapids, John Calvin 
Preparatory 

Grand Rapids, Sacred Heart 

Academy 
♦Grand Rapids, Union 

Grass Lake 

Grayling 

Greenland 
♦Greenville 
♦Gwinn 
♦Hancock 

Harbor Beach 

Harbor Springs 
♦Hart, a 

Hartford 
♦Hastings, a 
♦Highland Park 
♦Hillsdale, a 
♦Holland 

Holly 

Homer 
♦Houghton 

Howard City 

Howell 
♦Hudson, a 



250 



Public Secondary Education 



Imlay City 
*Ionia 
*Iron Mountain 

Iron River 
*Ironwood 

Ironwood, St. Ambrose 
*Ishpeming 

Ithaca 
*Jackson 

■Jonesville 
*Kalamazoo 

Kalamazoo, Nazareth Academy 

Kalamazoo, Normal Prepara- 
tory 

Kalkaska 
*Lake Linden 

Lake Odessa 

Lake View 

L'Anse 
*Lansing 

Lansing, St. Mary's 

Lapeer 

Lawton, a 

Leslie 
*Lowell 

Ludington, a 

Ludington, St. Simon's 

Mancelona 

Manchester 
*Manistee, a 
*Manistique 

Man ton 

Marcellus 

Marine City 

Marlette 
*Marquette 
♦Marshall 
*Mason 

Mendon 
*Menominee 
♦Midland 

Milan 

Millington 
*Monroe, a 

Monroe, St. Mary's 

Morenci 
*Mt. Clemens 
*Mt. Pleasant 

Mt. Pleasant, Normal Prepara- 
tory 

Mt. Pleasant, Sacred Heart 



Munising 
*Muskegon. a 

Nashville 
*Negaunee 

Newaygo 

New Baltimore 
*Newberry 
*Niles 

North Branch 

Northville 
*Norway 

Olivet 

Onaway 

Ontonagon 

Orion 
*Otsego, a 

Ovid 
*Owosso 

Oxford 
*Painesdale 
*Paw Paw 

Pellston 

Pentwater 
*Petoskey 

Plainwell 

Plymouth 
*Pontiac 
*Port Huron 
♦Portland 

Rapid River 

Reading 

Reed City 

Republic 

Richmond 
*River Rouge 

Rochester 

Rockford 

Rockland 

Romeo 

Royal Oak 
*Saginaw, E. S. 

Saginaw, St. Mary's 

Saginaw, SS. Peter and Paul 
*Saginaw, W. S. 

St. Charles 

St. Clair 

St. Ignace 
*St. Johns, a 
*St. Joseph 
*St. Louis, a 

Saline 



Appendixes 



251 



Sandusky *Traverse City, a 

Saranac Trenton 

*Sault Ste. Marie *Union City, a 

Schoolcraft Vassar 

Scottville Vicksburg 

Sebewaing Vulcan 

Shelby *Wakefield 

Shepherd Watervliet, a 

South Grand Rapids Wayne 

*South Haven, a West Branch 

Sparta *Williamston 

Spring Arbor Academy *Wyandotte 

Stanton Yale 

*Sturgis *Ypsilanti 

Tecumseh Ypsilanti, Normal Preparatory 

Three Oaks Zeeland 

*Three Rivers 

Number of accredited public high schools in Michigan ._ 225 

Number of accredited parochial and private high schools in Michigan 23 

Number of high schools in Michigan accredited by the North Central 

Association 100 

Total number of schools accredited by the North Central Association 986 

* Schools marked with an asterisk ( *) are also accredited by the North Central 
Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. 

a Schools marked thus (a) offer work in Agriculture that is accepted for admis- 
sion at the university. 



THE INDEX 



ACADEMICAL department, admission 
to, by examination only, 183; program 
of studies in Ypsilanti, 185; two 
courses in the, 183; union school 
building given over to, 180. 

Academies, and institutes chartered by 
special legislation, 79; and institutes 
in Indiana, rise of, 79; and semi- 
naries meet an unfilled demand, 80; 
apparently short-lived, earliest, 151; 
bequeathed the example of coeduca- 
tion, 171; curricula of the, 57; disci- 
pline in, 167; earliest, in a sense 
secondary schools, 152; efifect of pro- 
posed branches of university upon, 
152; "elective system" in operation 
in, 171; essentially public schools in 
people's opinion, 151; establishment 
of, continues, 153; founded between 
1830 and 1836, 153; "General Exer- 
cises" in, 167; government openly 
aids private, 50; gradually disappear, 
153; how they served posterity, 43; 
in Illinois, first, 83; instruction in the, 
168: instruction of negroes in, 166; 
in the colonies at the outbreak of the 
Revolution, 44; list of incorporated, 
in the United States in 1850, 51-52; 
not strictly speaking a part of state- 
supported school system, 151; number 
of, 153; of nineteenth century truly 
people's colleges, 166; organized by 
stock companies, 63; part of expenses 
of, and seminaries met by County 
Seminary Fund, 79; play notable part 
in history of secondary education in 
Michigan, 151; "question box" in, 
167; received no financial aid from 
the state, i6i; recognized in Michigan 
school system, 124; records of earliest, 
151; schools of democracy, 166; seek 
to be transformed into branches, 153; 
subject-matter arranged in "depart- 
ments," 168; supplanted by high 
schools, 190; supplanted by union 
schools, 163; taught classics and 
French, 151; textbooks in, 170; the 
strongest tie between the people, 63; 
tuition in, 168; were declared by 
enemies to be undemocratic, 167. 

Academy, the, 34; and Charitable 
School of Philadelphia, aims of, 37, 
38, 39; and grammar school in New 
England, 49; and the district school, 
48; at Corydon, first, 79; at Detroit, 
Catholic girls', 93; building, location 
of, 167; characteristics of the, 40; 
charters, property in, 165; charters, 
religion in, 164; charters and some 



of their provisions from, 164-166; 
decline of the, 80; fills a social need, 
34; for all classes, 39; furnishes the 
only secondary schooling in America, 
40; government aid for the support 
of the, 48; in the Middle Period, 4; 
movement and its fluctuations, 151, 
161; program of studies in the, 169; 
reaches the height of its importance 
in Michigan, 153; rise of the Ameri- 
can, 37; students' choice of studies 
in the, 170; the model for the de- 
veloping high school, 171; the second 
great type of secondary school, 151; 
typical, at Andover, 40; union school 
expected to take place of local, 178; 
year, terms of the, 168. 

Accidence, Cheever's, 17, 29; pages and 
lessons from, 18-19. 

Adherence, to a chosen course required, 
203; to selected course, high schools 
demand, 207. 

Administration of schools, incorporated 
city or town for first time made unit 
for local, 174. 

Administration of the University of 
Michigan, 103. 

Admission, to academies or high-school 
department by examination only, 
183; to branches, 134; to high school, 
subjects required for, 183; to Scien- 
tific Course, requirements for, 203 ; to 
university by certificate, 210; to uni- 
versity by examination, 134; to 
university in 1850, 144; to university 
on student's own merits, 220. 

Adrian Lyceum and Benevolent Asso- 
ciation, 156. 

Advance, general educational, 113; of 
high schools in Michigan, 192. 

Aesthetic side of school training, begin- 
ning of, 168. 

Affiliated schools, number increases 
rapidly, 217. 

Affiliation, advantages of, 217; does 
away with entrance examinations, 
218; of high schools and university, 
202, 217. 

Agricultural Department, required by 
law in at least one branch, 127. 

Ag^riculture, county schools of, 222. 

Allegheny Mountains, 65. 

America, English in, 65; English and 
French widely separated in, 65 ; 
French in, 65; second great awaken- 
ing of, 113. 

American life, second great awakening 
of, 113. 



253 



254 



Public Secondary Education 



American people, influences affecting 
the higher hfe of the, 4. 

Andrew Jackson, democratic move- 
ment under, 113. 

Ann Arbor, university buildings erected 
at, 131; university located, at, 128. 

Ann Arbor High School, classical course 
in, 184; English course in, 183. 

Annual reports of schools to the legis- 
lature, 157. 

Apparatus, high schools boast adequate 
supply of, 227; in early union schools, 
186; in secondary schools, illustra- 
tive. 60; in the Romeo branch, 137; 
purchased for university, 141. 

Appropriations, further reduction of 
university, 132. 

Aristocracy, branches considered places 
for education of (so-called), 141. 

Articulation, between different depart- 
ments of school, 183; between uni- 
versity and high school, 202. 

Assistants, teaching, 180. 

Association of City Superintendents, 
offers plan for uniform program, 231, 
232. 

Astronomy, great interest in, 137. 

Athens, Ohio, State University estab- 
lished at, 73. 

Athletics, Board of Directors of inter- 
high-school, 241; in high schools, 241; 
organized high-school, important, 
241; rigid supervision of high-school, 
242. 

Atlantic States, settlers of Illinois from 
South, 81. 

Attendance, at high schools increases 
vastly, 196; at Latin schools varied, 
26. 

BACCALAUREATE degree, conferred 
by University of Michigan, 205. 

Barnard, Henry, 113. 

"Base line," 90; diagram showing, 91. 

Benevolent Association, Adrian Lyce- 
um and, 156. 

Bequests and gifts decreasing, private, 
23- 

Better schools, Horace Mann's fight 
for, 113. 

Bible, study of religion and the, 20. 

Bill creating the University of Michi- 
gan, 97-99; principles embodied in 
the, 100. 

Board of Directors of inter-high-school 
athletics, 241. 

Board of Education of Michigan, first, 
99; powers and duties of the first, 99. 

Boston, 2; first Latin School established 
in, i; first to set up a high school, 53; 
grants land for support of schools, 6; 
levies tax for school purposes, 7. 

Boston Latin School, a cooperative 
undertaking, 5; a "free school," 2, 5; 
becomes a town school, 6; children 
of non-contributors admitted to, 6; 
establishment and support of, 2, 5; 
program of, 56. 



Boundary dispute, Michigan, no. 

Boys' English High School, at Boston, 
53; program of studies in, 56. 

Boys' school at Detroit, 95; Latin and 
history taught in, 95. 

Boys' schools, branches of university, 
127. 

Branch at Romeo, apparatus in, 137; 
coeducation in, 139; conditions in, in 
1851, 135, 136; faculty of, 136; 
laboratory demonstrations part of 
instruction in, 137; last, 134; literary 
society in, 139; offered preparatory 
and college work, 136; report of, 135- 
140; represented university schools 
at their best, 135; scope of instruc- 
tion in, 136; teacher-training course 
in, 138; tuition ip, 137. 

Branches of the university, 120, 124, 
125-150; academies seek to be trans- 
formed into, 153; admission to, 134; 
and university, financial arrange- 
ments of, 129; at Pontiac, Monroe, 
Kalamazoo, Detroit, Niles, White 
Pigeon, and Tecumseh, 128, 129; 
attitude of local committees toward, 
129; beginning of the decline of, 133; 
Classical Department of, 126; Com- 
mittee on, has hard task, 130; courts 
set aside law requiring university to 
aid, 147; demand for revival and sup- 
port of, 147; departments of, 126; 
English Department of, 126; effect 
of proposed branches on academies, 
152; established before the uni- 
versity, 128; "female institutions" 
opened in, 130; find favor with peo- 
ple, 130; frorn 1842 to 1847, 132, 133; 
five in operation, 128; funds lacking 
for support of both university and, 
131, 147; hope of revival abandoned, 
148; law requiring university support 
of, 147; left to own resources, 148; 
local board to have general control of, 
126; Normal Department of, 126; 
number enrolled in, 129; plan for 
a university with, abandoned, 134; 
popularity of, increases, 130; prepara- 
tion for university prime purpose of, 
141; prepare a class for the univer- 
sity, 128; receive aid from university 
fund, 127; regarded as places for 
education of (so-called) aristocracy, 
141; regents favor opening more, 131; 
religious quarrels and criticisms cast 
shadow over, 130; requirements for 
establishing, 125, 126; revival of, 
133; schools for boys, 137; second- 
ary education in, 124; served rela- 
tively small number of people, 140; 
three branches suspend, 132; towns 
vie for possession of, 129; university 
aid of, curtailed, 132; university 
support of, causes financial embar- 
rassment, 147; university support 
completely withdrawn, 133; women 
instructors in, 129. 



The Index 



255 



Buildings, change in use of school, 
necessitated by growth of town, i8o; 
communities proud ot school, i8i; 
location and plan of school, i8i; 
location of academy, 167; union 
school, 177, 180; university, erected 
at Ann Arbor, 131; ward school, 180. 

CALVINISTIC influences in England 
and America, effect of, 5. 

Carlyle, Illinois, Washington Academy 
at, 83. 

Catalogue of the university, first, 142. 

Catholepistemiad, or University of 
Michigania, Act to establish, 97. 

Catholic, girls' academy at Detroit, 93; 
schools at Detroit, early, 95. 

Catholicism, in England and America, 
5; eSect of, 5. 

Central college, Indians give land for 
support of, 100; University of Michi- 
gan a, in name only, 104. 

Centralizing theories of French influ- 
ence growth of Michigan school 
system, 96. 

Certificate of graduation from approved 
secondary school admits to univer- 
sity, 210. 

Certificating privileges granted to 
high schools, 202. 

Certification of teachers by state, 
recommended in Michigan, 114. 

Character, of settlers of Illinois, 81; of 
settlers of Michigan, 89, 105. 

Characteristics, of the academy, 40; 
of the three divisions of American 
secondary education, 4. 

Charleston, first school in South Caro- 
lina at, 32; qualifications for master 
of school in, 32. 

Charter for Michigan College, report 
recommending, 155. 

Chartered literary society, 156. 

Chartered secondary schools of Michi- 
gan with dates of incorporation, list 
of, 158-160. 

Charters, property in, 165; religion in 
academy, 164; some provisions from 
academy, 164-166. 

Cheever, Ezekiel, 29; schoolmaster in 
New Haven, 29. 

Cheever's Accidence, 17, 29; pages and 
lessons from, 18-19. 

Choice of studies, academy students', 
170; for seniors, 204; in Harvard 
College, 21. 

Church and education, the, 30. 

Church lands, a source of jealousy and 
contention, 70; Congress annuls ordi- 
nance respecting, 70; set aside for 
support of the church, 70. 

Church schools in the South, 31. 

Civil motive for education, 13. 

Civil War, Michigan rapidly recovers 
from effect of, 191; temporarily 
checks all schools, 191. 

Classes, the academy for all, 39. 



Classical and English courses in the 

high school, 207. 

Classical Course, 183; first course in the 
University of Michigan, 202; in Ann 
Arbor High School, 184; old rigid, 
has disappeared from academies, 
169; stronger schools offered, 183. 

Classical Department of the university 
branches, 126. 

Classical languages in the earliest 
academies, 151. 

Classical school at Detroit, 102; fore- 
runner of the "high school," 102; 
program of studies offered in, 103. 

Classics, over-emphasis of, 144. 

Codification of the Laws of Connecticut, 
28. 

Coeducation, academies bequeathed the 
example of, 171; at Romeo branch, 
139; first found in schools below the 
university, 198; in Latin schools, 26; 
in union schools, 187; in University 
of Michigan, effect on high schools of, 
201; not readily adopted by colleges, 
198. 

Colet, Dean, 15. 

College, and grammar school worked 
together, 20; at Detroit abandoned, 
103; influence of teachers trained in, 
240; offers no choice of subject- 
matter, 21; teaching unattractive to 
graduates of, 36; union schools not 
expected to prepare for, 178; work 
of, offered by Romeo branch, 136; 
work of, some high schools offer 
first-year, 216. 

Colleges, find recognition in Michigan 
school system, 124; in Illinois, 83; 
in Michigan, 154; new, founded from 
1776 to 1796, 44; new, more liberal, 
43; other than the state university 
established in Michigan, 156; reluc- 
tant to adopt coeducation, 198; 
rivaling state university, iS4;_ varied 
types of, stimulate education in 
Michigan, 156. 

Colonial Latin School, the, i. 

Colonial Period, 4; general situation of 
secondary education at close of, 27, 
33; Latin school in the, 4. 

Colonial schools, salaries in, 25; texts 
used in, brought from England, 17; 
the day in the old, 25. 

Colonies, Latin schools in, 2. 

Colonization of Northwest, England 
opposes, 85. 

Colony, Massachusetts Bay, i. 

Comenius, 14. 

Commission of Examiners from uni- 
versity for high schools, 213. 

Commission of Seven, 73; plans for 
state school system, 74. 

Committee on Branches, 30. 

Committees, attitude toward branches 
of local, 129. 

Common schools, did not include high 
schools, 193; Primary School Interest 
Fund for support of, 193; rise of, 218. 



256 



Public Secondary Education 



Communities vie with one another in 
promoting high schools, 190. 

Concentration of power in Michigan 
schools, loi. 

Conditions in Michigan unfavorable to 
settlement, 87. 

Conditions of entrance to the univer- 
sity, terms and, 135. 

Confederate Congress encourages edu- 
cation, 47. 

Congress, annuls ordinance regarding 
church lands, 70; divides the North- 
west, 71; grants land for support of a 
university, 70. 

Connecticut, Codification of the Laws 
of, 28. 

Connecticut Colony, secondary educa- 
tion in, 28. 

Conservation of school funds, plan for, 
114. 

Consolidation, of Detroit school dis- 
tricts, 174; of high-school programs, 
229; of school districts has advan- 
tages, 175; of school districts, super- 
intendents urge, 176, 177. 

Constitution of Illinois, first, makes no 
provision for support of education, 82. 

Constitution of Michigan, educational 
provisions of, no, iii; first to pro- 
vide for state superintendent of edu- 
cation, 108. 

Constitution of Ohio provides for edu- 
cation, 73. 

Constitutional provisions, put into 
effect, no. 

Constitutions, early state, and sec- 
ondary education, 45. 

Contemporary Period, 4; public high 
school in the, 4. 

Content of high-school program, 223, 
224. 

Control of the university, officers 
having, 125. 

Corydon, Ind., first academy at, 79. 

Country youth, difficulty in securing 
high-school education for, 221; high- 
school education for, 221, 222. 

County normal training classes, 222. 

County, school funds loaned to, 118. 

County schools of agriculture, 222; of 
domestic science, 222. 

County seminaries in Indiana, 79. 

County Seminary Fund, 79; meets part 
of expenses of seminaries and acade- 
mies alike, 79. 

Course in university rigidly prescribed, 
143- 

Courses, in academical or high-school 
department, 183; in high schools, 
begin to take definite shape, 207; in 
secondary schools include both ele- 
mentary and college subjects, 185; in 
union schools, length of, 179; in Uni- 
versity of Michigan, 104, 203; influ- 
enced by two opinions, 214; little 
flexibility in, 185; modified, 207. 

Courts, set aside law requiring univer- 
sity aid for branches, 147; settle 



legal status of public secondary 

schools, 193. 
Criticism of over-emphasis of study of 

classics, 144. 
Curricula of the academies, 57. 
"Cut and try" method of developing 

school systems, 8. 

DAME school, the, 3. 

Dangers, beset new high schools, 191; 
faced by settlers in the Northwest, 
86. 

Day, in the colonial schools, the, 25; in 
union schools, 180. 

Decline of branches, beginning of the, 
133; of Latin schools, 24; of pre- 
scribed courses, 186; of seminary and 
academy, 80. 

Degrees conferred by the University of 
Michigan, 204, 205. 

Delaware, 30. 

Demand, for adequate schools, 37; for 
free, secular, state-supported sec- 
ondary schools, 173; for more 
branches, 131; for revival and 
support of branches, 147; for schools, 
universal, 113; for union-school dis- 
tricts throughout the state, 174. 

Democracy, academies, schools of 
social, 166. 

Democratic institutions, high schools 
as, 240. 

Democratic movement under Andrew 
Jackson, 113. 

Denominational schools in Michigan, 
no need for private, 100; Pierce 
opposes, 121. 

Department of Education, of Michigan 
Territory, 108. 

Departments, in schools, no close articu- 
lation of, 183; in union schools, 179; 
of university branches, the three, 
126; of university, the three, 128: 
subject-matter in academies arranged 
in, 168. 

Detroit, branch at, 128; classical school 
at, 102; classical school at, the fore- 
runner of the "high school," 102; 
college at, abandoned, 103; early 
schools at, 95 ; early schools at. 
Catholic, 9S; has eight school dis- 
tricts, 174; high-school program for 
1879, 229-231; program of studies 
offered in classical school at, 103; 
school districts consolidated, 174; 
Young Men's Society, 157. 

Diagram, of a section, 91 ; of a township, 
91; showing base line, 91; showing 
principal meridian, 91. 

Differentiation of functions of teachers, 
180. 

District made school unit, 108. 

District school and the academy, the, 
48. 

District-school plan, first step toward 
modification of, 174. 

Diversion in the schools, literary society 
almost sole, 140. 



The Index 



257 



Divisions of American secondary edu- 
cation, characteristics of the three, 4. 
Domestic science, county schools of, 

232. 

Dorchester, Mass., first to support 
pubUc school by direct taxation, 9; 
provides first body for school admin- 
istration, 9. 

Dummer School, the, 40. 

Duties, of Michigan's first Board of 
Education, powers and, 99; of the 
master of a school, 25; of the school 
usher, 25. 

EARLY academies, apparently short- 
lived, 151; in a sense secondary 
schools, 152; teaching of classics and 
French in, 151. 

Early colonists, education cherished by, 
12. 

Early French, explorations, 65; schools 
in Michigan, 89; settlements and 
trading posts, 65. 

Early high schools, organization of, 207 ; 
points of contention in fight on, 193, 
194. 

Early Northwest, the, 64. 

Early school history, of Illinois, 81; of 
Indiana, 74; of Michigan, 89; of 
Ohio, 72; of Wisconsin, 84. 

Early schools at Detroit, 95; Catholic, 
95; instruction in, 95. 

Early settlements in Michigan, 85. 

Early settlers of Northwest, 77; sup- 
porters of education and religion, 
68-69.. 

East Saginaw, partial election of studies 
in, 209. 

Eastern ideas predominate in early 
Michigan, 89. 

Education, Confederate Congress en- 
courages, 47; developed from top 
downward, 197; early history of, in 
Illinois, 81; early settlers of North- 
west supporters of religion and, 68, 
69; foundation of American public 
schools of secondary, 2; Illinois 's first 
constitution makes no provision for 
support of, 82; increase of secondary, 
196; in Indiana, 80; in Michigan at 
public expense, 104; in Michigan, 
French influence upon, 104; in Michi- 
gan, important points in Pierce's plan 
for, lis; in Michigan, third type 
of secondary, 172; in Michigan, 
varied types of colleges stimulate, 
156; in Ohio, lags, 72; in Pennsylva- 
nia, 31; in Plymouth colony, 27; 
in the early Northwest, secondary, 
78; in the South, 31; Michigan con- 
stitution first to provide for state 
superintendent of, 108; Michigan 
demands adequate system of, 114; 
motives for, 13; nuclei for state uni- 
versities and free higher, 70; of 
(so-called) aristocracy, university 
branches considered places for, 141; 
Ohio constitution provides for, 73; 



possible for all in Michigan, loi; 
provision of Indiana for, 75; Puritans 
foster interest in, 10; secondary and 
elementary, demanded two distinct 
types of schools, 120; secondary, 
classed as superior education, 193; 
secondary, in the "branches" of the 
university, 124; sixteenth section of 
every township dedicated to support 
of, 47, 70; tax for support of, re- 
pealed, 103; territorial laws of Illinois 
do not mention schools and, 82; 
wide gap in system of free, 161. 

Education and rehgion closely related, 
II. 

Education and the church, 30, 

Educational, administrators, Michigan 
fortunate in her early, 112; advance 
general, 113; advantage, delays in 
settlement of Michigan redound to 
her, 88; ideas of first state superin- 
tendent of education in Michigan, 
112; principles underlying school 
system of Michigan, 104; provisions 
of the constitution of Michigan, no, 
in; situation in Michigan at close 
of territorial period, 108; ventures, 
Michigan College opens way for 
other, 124. 

Educational conditions in Indiana, de- 
plorable up to 1850, 80; reformation 
of, sought by constitution of 1851,80. 

Educational institutions, law required 
state supervision of, 157; three types 
of, 3. 

Educational system, Illinois slow to 
establish a state, 82; of early Michi- 
gan, retarding in its effects, 173; of 
Michigan, foundation of, 90; of 
Michigan, tends to follow German 
model, 212; plan for, not developed 
by Indiana, 76; proposed system of 
Indiana almost unequaled in the 
world, 74, 75- 

Edwardsville, 111., Madison Academy 
at, 83. 

Election of studies, first appears in 
University of Michigan, 203; free, 
in high schools first seen, 209; in East 
Saginaw, partial, 209. 

"Elective chaos," early organization of 
high schools an, 207. 

Elective system, extended, 236; fore- 
runner of the free, 204; in operation 
in academies, 171; in universities, 
20s. 

Elementary and secondary education 
demanded two distinct types of 
schools, 120. 

Elementary education, real beginning 
of working system of public, in 
Michigan, 107. 

Elementary school, high school the 
product of, 78; maintained by every 
town of fifty families, 3; work of, 
enriched, 55. 

Enemy to popular education, university 
spoken of as, 141. 



18 



258 



Public Secondary Education 



Engineering courses established in 
university, 203. 

England, disregards treaty of 1873, 67; 
jealousy between France and, 66; 
opposes colonization of Northwest, 
8s; refuses to withdraw from North- 
west, 71; the second ruler of North- 
west Territory, 66. 

English and French widely separated 
in America, 65. 

English Classical School, 53. 

English Course, 183; every school 
oilered, 183; in Ann Arbor High 
School, 183; in the high school, 207. 

English Decartment of the branches, 
126. 

English idea of self-government, people 

• of Territory of Michigan, indifferent 
to. 105. 

English in America, the, 65. 

English language, law requiring that all 
instruction be given in, 188. 

English Latin schools the prototypes of 
early American secondary schools, 5. 

"English school" in Michigan, 106. 

EngUsh settlement at Marietta, Ohio, 
66. 

English subjects emphasized, 38. 

Entrance examinations abolished by 
affiliation, 218. 

Entrance to university, requirements 
affect high schools, 214; terms and 
conditions of, 135. 

Era, of American Revival of Learning, 
113; of activity of private schools, 
124. 

Erie Canal, 93; important in increasing 
population of Michigan, 93. 

Establishment, and support of schools 
a legitimate function of government, 
6; of academies continues, 153; 
of branches of the University, re- 
quirements for, 125, 126. 

Examination, admission to secondary 
schools only by, 183; admission to 
university by, 134. 

Expansion of subject-matter in Uni- 
versity of Michigan, 202. 

Expenses, of academies and seminaries 
met partly by County Semmary 
Fund, 79; of students in University 
of Michigan reduced to a minimum, 
104. 

Explorations, early French, 65. 

Explorers, and missionaries, French, 
65, 85; and surveyors in Michigan, 
87. 

FACTORS influencing educational his- 
tory of Northwest Territory, 68. 

Faculty and students of university 
increase, 142; of the Romeo branch, 
136; of the University of Michigania, 
first, loi. 

False reports turn migration from 
Michigan, 87. 

Fayette County, Ind., first seminary in, 
79. 



Federal government distributes the 
surplus revenue, 113. 

Fees, matriculation, 145; tuition, 34. 

"Female institutions" opened in 
branches, 130. 

Fight, for better schools, Horace Mann's, 
113; on early high school, points of 
contention in, 193, 194. 

Financial aid to academies not granted 
by state, 161. 

Financial arrangements of branches and 
university, 129. 

Fines, for failure of towns to maintain 
Latin schools, 23, 28; for failure to 
obey school laws in Michigan, 107. 

"First College of Michigania," 102; 
sources of support of, 102. 

First school law of Illinois, 82. 

First school of secondary education in 
America, i. 

First settlers in the Northwest, 68. 

First woman student in the University 
of Michigan, 200. 

First-year college work offered in some 
high schools, 216. 

Fisheries, proceeds from, to support 
schools, 27, 28. 

Flexible courses, adoption of, 210; 
Professor Whitney presents plan for, 
235; Professor Whitney suggests, 209. 

Flexibility in high-school courses, 18,5. 

Fluctuations in the academy move- 
ment, 161. 

Foreign languages, instruction in, 
unconstitutional, 194. 

Foundation, of American public schools 
of secondary education, 2; of educa- 
tional system of Michigan, 90. 

Fourteenth-century characteristics in 
seventeenth-century New England, 
14. 

Four-year course uniformly estab- 
lished in high schools, 215. 

France, jealousy between England and, 
66; the first white power in North- 
west Territory, 65. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 37. 

Free choice, of studies finding favor, 
186; of subjects for admission to 
university, 205. 

Free education, wide gap in system of, 
161; no secondary, 162. 

Free election of studies in high schools 
first seen, 209. 

Free elective system, forerunner of the, 
204. 

Free public schools, graded schools not, 
176; secular, free, state-supported 
schools demanded, 173. 

"Free school," 5; a school of secondary 
grade, 2; Boston Latin School a, 
2, s; in Charleston, S. C, 32; law in 
Illinois, 83; significance of the 
expression, 6. 

Free schools, for Indians, 13; for poor 
children, 13; tendency of state policy 
always toward system of, 196. 

French and Indian War, 85. 



The Index 



259 



French and Indians masters of North- 
west Territory, 85. 

French, early instruction in Michigan 
probably in, 95; English and, widely 
separated in America, 65; explora- 
tions, early, 65; explorers and mis- 
sionaries, 65; explorers in Michigan, 
85; in America, 65; in Michigan, 85; 
influence on education in Michigan, 
104; school at Kaskaskia, 81; 
schools in Michigan, early, 89; 
settlements and trading posts, early, 
6s; taught in many of the earliest 
academies, 151. 

Friendly suit, between Romeo branch 
and university, 135; to determine 
legality of high schools, 194. 

Friends' Public School, 31. 

Functions of teachers, differentiation 
of, 180; of the three types of educa- 
tional institutions, 3. 

Fund, branches receive aid from uni- 
versity, 127; Indiana's seminary, 79. 

Funds, see School funds. 

"GENERAL Exercises" in academies, 
167. 

General state policy had always tended 
toward system of free schools, 196. 

Georgia establishes a university, 97. 

German model influences educational 
system of Michigan, 212. 

Ghent, Treaty of, 71. 

Girls, admitted to university in 1 870, 
129; and secondary education, 27; 
more girls complete high-school 
course after 1870, 201; provisions 
made for schools for, 127. 

Girls' academy, at Detroit, Catholic, 93. 

Girls' English High School, at Boston, 
54; program of studies in, 55. 

Gloucester's Greek Grammar, 19. 

Government, aid for private academies, 
48, so; left in debt by Revolution, 68; 
Northwest Territory under the 
general, 67. 

Graded schools, important towns estab- 
lish, 178; not free public schools, 176; 
"rate" in, 176; superintendents 
favor, 176, 177; tuition in, 176; work 
offered in, left to local board, 176. 

Grades, union school building contains 
all, 180. 

Grading in union schools, 175. 

Graduation, from high schools achieved 
by few, 214; from university based 
on "hours" of work, 205. 

Grammar, Lilly's, 19. 

Grammar school, and college worked 
together, 20; every town of one 
hundred families required to support 
a, 3; in New England, academy and, 
49; new meaning of term, 53. 

"Grammar school" in Michigan, 107; 
new meaning of term, 53. 

Grand Rapids High School, program of 
studies m, for 1862, 224, 225. 

Grants of land, see Land and Lands. 



Gray, Dr. Asa, first professor in uni- 
versity, 141. 

Greek and mathematics, with Latin, 
constitute bulk of studies in univer- 
sity, 143; required for admission to 
Harvard, 19; study of, added to 
Latin, 12; study of, followed same 
plan as study of Latin, 19. 

Greek and Latin dominate thought of 
early nineteenth century, 96. 

Greek Grammar, Gloucester's, 19. 

Growth, of high school, 242; of high 
schools by years, 192; of population 
in Michigan from 1810 to 1890, map 
showing, 194; of private schools, cir- 
cumstances temporarily check, 124; 
of religious sects, 70. 

Gynmasien, 212. 

HARVARD College, dictating mistress 
of Latin schools, 20; earliest schedule 
of, 22. 

Harvard University founded, 3. 

Head master in union school, 180, 181. 

Hebrew, study of Greek and, 12. 

High school, the academy the model 
for the, 171; admission to the, by 
examination only, 183; aim of the, 
54; and university, affiliation of, 
202, 212, 216; a new type of educa- 
tional institution, 53; athletics in the, 
241, 242; attendance at, increases, 
194; beginning of true period of, in 
Michigan, 180, 188; Classical and 
English Courses in, 207; close articu- 
lation of university with, 202; 
courses in, begin to take definite 
form, 207; a democratic institution, 
240; education for country youth 
in, 221; era in Michigan, 191-242; 
first set up in Boston, 53; flexi- 
bility in courses in, 185; girls' com- 
plete course in, 201; growth of, 242; 
introduction of the term, 53; length 
of course in, 192; open to boys only, 
54; post-graduate work in, receives 
university credit, 216; program of 
studies in, prescribed, 54; program, 
changes in scope and content, 223, 
224; public, 4; public, appears,_ 80; 
pupils overburdened in, 215; subjects 
required for admission to, 183; 
teachers in, preparation of, 237; the 
classical school at Detroit forerunner 
of the, 103; the product of the 
elementary school, 78; union school 
forerunner of the present-day, 172. 

High-school athletics, important, organ- 
ized, 241; subject to rigid super- 
vision, 242. 

High schools, affected by additional 
entrance requirement* of university, 
214; and university more closely 
related, 312; authorized, rural, ssi; 
average number of pupils per teacher 
in, 240; begin to permit free election 
of studies, 209; boast adequate sup- 
ply of apparatus, 227; changes m 



26o 



Public Secondary Education 



universitjr react on, 205; Commission 
of Examiners of, from university, 
213; communities vie with one 
another in promoting, 190; con- 
soHdate and unify programs, 329; 
contain all classes of people, 240; 
dangers beset new, 191; early organi- 
zation of, an "elective chaos," 207; 
establish teachers' departments, 226; 
establish uniform four-year course, 
21s; _ friendly suit to determine 
legality of, 194; growth of, by years, 
192; hold few till graduation, 214; 
influenced in making courses by two 
opinions, 214; little uniformity 
among early, 206; many courses in, 
cause confusion, 208; not classed as 
common schools, 193; offer first-year 
college work, some, 216; offer post- 
graduate work, 215; of to-day, union 
schools foundation of, 188; partly 
supported by University Fund, 194; 
period of greatest advancement of, 
m Michigan, 192; preparing for any 
one college course given limited 
certificating privileges, 219; provi- 
sion for increasing needs of, 196; 
receive certificating privileges, 202; 
supplant academies, 190. 

Higher standard set in all schools, 211. 

History, of education in Illinois, early, 
81; of Michigan College at Marshall, 
154; of secondary education in 
Michigan, academies play notable 
part in, 151. See also School history. 

History taught in boys' school at 
Detroit, Latin and, 95. 

Houghton, Dr., second professor in 
university, 141. 

"Hours" of work basis of graduation 
from university, 205. 

Hygiene required by law, study of, 233. 

IDEAL course for the early schools, 15. 

Ideals and forms of older institutions 
adopted by university, 144; for the 
schools, 13. 

Ideas of East predominate in early 
Michigan, 89. 

Illinois, character of settlers of, 81; 
"colleges" and seminaries in, 83; 
early history of education in, 81; 
"free school" law of, 83; first acade- 
mies in, 83; first constitution of, 
makes no provision for support of 
education, 82; first school law of, 82; 
formed, 71; receives school lands, 82; 
settlers of, from South Atlantic 
States, 81; slow to establish state 
educational system, 82; state aid 
for colleges and seminaries in, 83; 
territorial laws of, do not mention 
schools and education, 82; textbooks 
in schools of, 83. 

Illustrative apparatus in secondary 
schools, 60. 

Incorporated academies in the United 
States in 1850, list of, 51, 52. 



Increase, in high-school attendance, 
196; in population of early Michigan, 
93; in secondary education, causes 
of, 196. 

Indiana, advanced ideas of, impos- 
sible of realization, 76; authorizes 
school officers, 77; county seminaries 
in, 79; deplorable educational con- 
ditions in, up to 1850, 80; early school 
history of, 74; formed from North- 
west "Territory, 71; permanent school 
fund in, 80; permissive school laws 
of, 77; plan for educational system 
not developed by, 76; proposed 
educational system of, 74, 75, 81; 
receives school lands, 74; reformation 
of educational conditions in, sought 
by constitution of 1851, 80; schools 
of, a theme for ridicule, 77; school tax 
in, 81; seminary fund in, 79; semi- 
nary trustee in, 79. 

Indians, and French, masters of the 
Northwest, 85; free schools for, in 
164s, 13; grant land for support of 
central college, 100; in the North- 
west, subdued, 86. 

Individuals, school funds loaned to, 
118. 

Industrial training urged, 233. 

Influence, of college-bred teachers, 
240; of French in school system of 
Michigan, 96; of Jesuit schools, 5; of 
New England felt in Michigan, 106; 
of University of Michigan on second- 
ary education, 197. 

Influences affecting the higher life of 
the American people, 4. 

Inhabitants of Michigan, characteris- 
tics of, 105. 

Inspection, school visitation and, 9. 

Institutes chartered by special legisla- 
tion, academies and, 79; in Indiana, 
rise of academies and, 79. 

Institutions and laws of Massachusetts 
adopted by other colonies, 3. 

Institutions and practices familiar to 
the Puritan fathers at home, i. 

Instruction, early, in Michigan probably 
in French, 95; for negroes in the 
academies, 166; in foreign languages 
unconstitutional, 194; in Romeo 
branch, laboratory demonstrations 
part of, 137; in the academies, 168; 
to all be given in English language, 
law requiring, 188. 

Inter-high-school athletics. Board of 
Directors of, 241. 

JACKSON, Andrew, democratic move- 
ment under, 113. 

Janua linguarum reserata, 14. 

Jealousy between France and England, 
66. 

Jefiferson, Thomas, scheme of, for Vir- 
ginia school system, 97. 

JesuitSj influence of the schools of the, 5. 

Jonesville has first union school 
authorized under law of 1843, 178. 



The Index 



261 



KALAMAZOO, branch at, 128; High 

School Case, 193. 
Kaskaskia, early French school at, 81. 

LABORATORY demonstrations part 
of instruction at university branch 
at Romeo, 137. 

Land, Boston grants, for school support, 
6; Congress grants, for support of 
university, 70; dedicated to support 
of the church, 70; grants, average 
value of, high, 92 ; grants, first educa- 
tional, made directly to people, 72; 
method of locating a tract of, 91; of 
pestilence and poison, Michigan a, 87. 

Land Ordinance of 1785, 47, 90. 

Lands, Congress annuls ordinance 
granting church, 70; dedicated to 
support of church a source of jealousy 
and contention, 70; for support of 
central college, Indians grant, 100; 
Illinois receives school, 82; Indiana 
receives school, 74; in the Northwest 
Territory sold to pay debts of Revo- 
lution, 68; Michigan, as a unit, 
receives school, 88; sale of public, of 
Michigan, 116; survey of public, 90. 

Latin, and Greek uppermost in thought 
of early nineteenth century, 96; and 
Greek and mathematics constitute 
bulk of studies in university, 143; 
and history taught in boys' school at 
Detroit, 95. 

Latin School, The Colonial, 1-33. 

Latin school, aim and function of the, 
i; the fishing interests and the, 28; 
aristocratic in nature, 35; course re- 
duced to four years, 57; every town 
of one hundred families required to 
support a, 3, 28; first, established in 
Boston, i; in the Colonial Period, 4; 
number of pupils attending, 26; of first 
importance from earliest days, 11. 

Latin schools, aimed to i)repare for 
college, 20; coeducation in, 26; de- 
cline of, 24; fines for failure of towns 
to maintain, 23, 28; Harvard College 
dictating mistress of, 20; no longer 
meet social needs, 24; privately sup- 
ported except in New England, 3; 
segregation in, 27. 

Law, first Illinois school, 82; general 
school, 3; Illinois "free scho9l," 83; 
establishing state university in 
Michigan, 103; of 1817 repealed, 103; 
of 1843, first union school organized 
under, at Jonesville, 178; permissive 
features of school, made mandatory, 
3; permitting local officers to organ- 
ize union schools anywhere, 17s; 
required an Agricultural Depart- 
ment in at least one branch, 127; re- 
quired state supervision of educa- 
tional institutions, 157; requiring all 
instruction to be given in English 
language, 188; requiring study of 
physiology and hygiene, 233 ; requir- 
ing university support of branches. 



147; requiring university support of 
branches set aside by courts, 147. 

Law the only traditional college sub- 
ject not treated in the course of 
University of Michigan, 100. 

Lawrence Literary Institute Associa- 
tion, 156. 

Laws and institutions of Massachusetts 
adopted by other colonies, 3; codi- 
fication of, of Connecticut, 28; early 
school, of Ohio, 73; fine for failure 
to comply with school, of Michigan, 
107; Michigan school, of 1827, 106, 
107; permissive school, of Indiana, 
77; providing for branches of uni- 
versity, 125. 

Learning, American Revival of, 113. 

"Learning, passion for," 113; surges 
over Michigan, 191. 

Legal status of public secondary 
schools settled by courts, 193. 

Legality of high schools, friendly suit 
to determine, 194. 

Legislature, annual reports of schools 
to the, 157; assumes neutral attitude 
toward secondary education, 172; 
refuses to provide for secondary 
education, 173. 

Length of courses, in union schools, 
179; in high schools varied, 192. 

Libraries, few high-school, of signifi- 
cance, 227; in early union schools of 
little value, 186. 

Library for the university, nucleus for 
a, 131- 

Life in the Northwest, early, 77. 

Lilly, William, 15. 

Lilly's Grammar, 19. 

Literary Institute Association, Law- 
rence, 156. 

Literary society, almost the sole diver- 
sion in the schools, 140; at Romeo, 
139; chartered, 156. 

Local academies, union schools sup- 
posed to take place of, 178. 

Local administration of schools, incor- 
porated city or town for first time 
made unit for, 174. 

Local board to have general control of 
branches, 126; work oSered in graded 
schools left to, 176. 

Local committees, attitude of, toward 
branches, 129. 

Local officers permitted by law to 
organize union schools, 175. 

Locating, a given section of land, 
method of, 92; any tract of land, 91. 

Location, of academy buildings, 167; of 
school buildings, 181. 

Losses suffered by school fund of 
Michigan, 117. 

Low salaries in union schools, 182. 

Lyceum, 140; Adrian Lyceum and 
Benevolent Association, 156, 

MADISON Academy at Edwardsville, 

III.. 83. 
Maine, 30. 



262 



Public Secondary Education 



Mann, Horace, and his fight for better 
schools, 113. 

Marietta, Ohio, English settlement at, 
67; receives federal aid for support 
of schools, 47. 

Marshall, history of Michigan College 
at, 154. 

Maryland vainly seeks to establish 
public schools in 1696, 31. 

Massachusetts, first type of public 
school in, i ; laws and institutions of, 
adopted by other colonies, 3; School 
Law of 1647 a model for Michigan, 
106; the mother of American school 
system, 3; the mother of secondary 
education in America, 27. 

Massachusetts Bay Colony, i. 

Master of a school, duties of the, 25. 

Mathematics, with Greek and Latin, 
constitutes bulk of studies in univer- 
sity, 143. 

Matriculation fee in university, 145. 

Men principals of union schools, 187. 

Methods of administering school affairs, 
various, 10. 

Michigan, academies, seminaries, and 
colleges recognized by school system 
of, 124; academy reaches its highest 
importance in, 153; admitted as a 
state, 108; a land of pestilence and 
poison, 87; as a unit, receives school 
lands, 88; assumes self-government, 
106; attempts to establish schools in, 
imsuccessful, 103; beginning of true 
high-school period in, 188; borrows 
all school funds, 118; boundary 
dispute of, no; character of settlers 
of, 89, 105 ; chartered secondary 
schools of, 158-160; College at Mar- 
shall, history of, 154; College opens 
way for other educational ventures, 
124; College, report recommending 
charter for, 155; "colleges" in, 154; 
colleges other than state university 
established in, 156; concentration of 
power in schools of, 10 1; conditions 
in, particularly unfavorable to settle- 
ment, 87; conserves school lands, 
88; delays in settlement of, re- 
dound to its educational advantage, 
88; demands adequate system of 
education, 114; early educational 
system of, 173; early French schools 
in, 89; early history of, 85; early 
instruction in, probably in French, 
95; early settlements in, 85; educa- 
tion at public expense in, 104; 
education possible for all in, loi; 
educational ideas of first state super- 
intendent of education in, 112; 
educational provisions of the con- 
stitution of, no, in; educational 
situation at the close of the terri- 
torial period in, 108; "English school" 
in, 106; explorers and surveyors in, 
87; false reports turn tide of migra- 
tion from, 87; feels influence of New 
Englanders, 106; first Board of Edu- 



cation of, 99; fortunate in her early 
educational administrators, 112; 
foundation of educational system of, 
90; French in, 85; French explorers 
in, 8s; French influence upon educa- 
tion in, 104; "grammar school" in, 
107; had no incorporated schools 
prior to 1830, 152; ideas of East pre- 
dominate in early, 89; important 
points in Pierce's plan for education 
in, 115; increase in population due 
to opening of Erie Canal, 93; in- 
fluence of centralizing theories of 
French on school system of, 96; 
legislature of, accepts Pierce's plan, 
116; map showing growth of popu- 
lation in, 94; migration from New 
England to, 106; minimum salary 
law recommended in, 114; new law 
establishing state university in, 103; 
no need for private or denomina- 
tional schools in, 100; passion for 
education surges over, 191; period of 
greatest advancement of high schools 
in, 192; plan of, provides for estab- 
lishment of schools of every grade 
from elementary to university, 100; 
population increases slowly in early, 
93; powers and duties of first Board 
of Education of, 99; present condition 
of funds for primary schools of, 
119, 120; Primary School Fund of, 
119; principles underlying school 
system of, 104; professional training 
and state certification of teachers' 
recommended in, 114; profits by 
mistakes of older states, 88; programs 
of studies have common foundation, 
237; public servants of early, loi; 
public support and control of schools 
m, 100; rapidly recovers from effects 
of Civil War, 191; rejects representa- 
tion in legislature, 105; sale of public 
lands of, 116; sanctions schools not 
supported or controlled by state, 123; 
school fund of, suffers great loss, 117; 
school laws of, contradictory, 107; 
school laws of 1827, 106, 107; school 
terms in, 106, 107; state constitution 
first to provide for state superintend- 
ent of education, 108; State Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction of, 
108; takes steps to become a state, 
no; tends toward German educa- 
tional system, 212; Territorial De- 
partment of Education of, 108; 
Territory established, 71; third type 
of secondary education in, 172; 
university the head of the school 
system in, 104; Upper Peninsula 
added to, no; uses Massachusetts 
School Law of 1647 as model, 106; 
varied types of colleges stimulate 
education in, 156. 

Michigan College, early history of, 154; 
report recommending charter for, 
155. 

"Michigania, University of," 95. 



The Index 



263 



Middle colonies, secondary education 
in, 30. 

Middle Period, the, 4, 34; academy in 
the, 4, 34; relatively barren regard- 
ing secondary education, 34. 

Migration, from New England to Michi- 
gan, 106; westward, 67. 

Minimum salary law for teachers in 
Michigan recommended, 114. 

Missionaries and explorers, French, 65. 

Missionary motive for education, 13. 

Mississippi River, part of route of 
French explorers, 65. 

Modifications, of district-school plan, 
first step toward, 174; of university 
course recommended by State Board 
of Visitors, 144. 

Monroe, branch at, 128. 

Monteith, Reverend John, loi. 

Motive for education, the civil, 13; the 
missionary, 13; the philanthropic, 
13; the religious, 13. 

NATIONAL domain, the, 67. 

Negroes in the academies, instruction 
of, 166. 

Neutral attitude toward secondary ed- 
ucation, legislature assumes, 172. 

New Amsterdam, i; school established 
in, I. 

New buildings to meet needs of new 
type of schools, 181. 

New colleges founded between 1776 
and 1796, 44; more liberal in choice 
of subject-matter, 43. 

New England, academy and grarn- 
mar school in, 49; influence of, in 
Michigan, 106; migration to Michi- 
gan from, 106. 

New Hampshire, early public second- 
ary schools in, 30. 

New Haven Colony, secondary educa- 
tion in, 28. 

New Jersey, early elementary schools 
in, 30. 

New York, early elementary schools 
in, 30; first secondary school in, 
30; standard, to be met by private 
schools of, 121; university created 
in, 97- 

Niles, Mich., branch of university at, 
128. 

Normal Department of the university 
branches, 126. 

Normal schools grant teacher's certifi- 
cates, 239. 

Normal training class, county, 222. 

North Carolina, early school conditions 
in, 32. 

Northwest, early, 64; early life m, 77; 
England opposes colonization of, 
85; first settlers in, 68; Indians in, 
subdued, 86; obstacles to settlement 
of, 86; perils and dangers in, 86; 
powers that controlled, 64; secondary 
education in early, 78. 

Northwest Territory, Congress divides 
the, 71; disputes over, 67; England 



refuses to withdraw from, 71; 
England second ruler of, 66; factors 
influencing educational history of, 
68; France first white power in, 65; 
French and Indians masters of, 85; 
lands in, sold to pay debts of Revo- 
lution, 68; number of states to be 
made from, limited, 71; powers_ to 
which, was subject, 67; states claim- 
ing the, 66; thrown open to pur- 
chasers, 68; under the general govern- 
ment, 67. 
Number, of academies unknown, 153; 
of affiliated schools increases rapidly, 
217; of pupils enrolled in the first 
branches, 129; of pupils per teacher 
in high schools, 240; of recitations in 
university in 1850, 144; of states to 
be made from Northwest Territory 
limited, 71; of students in the uni- 
versity after 1850, 147; of women in 
the University of Michigan, 200. 

OBSTACLES to settlement of North- 
west, 86. 

Office of superintendent, rise of, 180. 

Officers, controlling the university, 125; 
special, in charge of schools, 9. 

Ohio, a state, 73; authorizes local school 
officers, 73; constitution of, provides 
for education, 73; dissipates school 
funds, 72; early school laws of, 73; 
education lags in, 72; establishes 
state university at Athens, 73; or- 
ganized, 71; practically without 
schools, 73. 

Old and new in secondary institutions, 
39. 

Old statutes of New England outgrown 
and ignored, 3S-36. 

Opening of university, delay increases 
difficulty of, 131; no longer to be 
deferred, 131. 

Opposition of Mr. Pierce to private and 
denominational schools, 121. 

Ordinance of 1785, 92; an invitation to 
all the world to buy, 92. 

Ordinance of 1787, 47, 7i; United 
States still observes, 47. 

Organization, of states from North- 
west Territory, 7 1 ; of union schools, 
general plan of, 179. 

Original scheme for University of 
Michigan never put into operation, 
102. 

Over-emphasis on classics criticized, 
144. 

PANIC of 1837, 116. 

Paris, Peace of, 85; Treaty of, 66. 

Partial election of studies in East 
Saginaw, 209. 

Passion for education sweeps Michi- 
gan, 191. 

"Passion for learning," 113. 

Peace of Paris, 85. 

Penn, William, 30. 

Pennsylvania, early education in, 31. 



264 



Public Secondary Education 



People's colleges, academies of nine- 
teenth century truly, 166. 

Perils and dangers in the Northwest, 86. 

Permanent school fund in Indiana, 80. 

Permissive school laws of Indiana, 77. 

Philanthropic motive for education, 13. 

Phillips academies, aim of the, 40-42. 

Phillips Exeter Academy, 40; program 
of studies in, 58-60. 

Phillips family, 40. 

Physiology, study of, required by law, 
233- 

Pierce, Reverend John, Superintendent 
of Public Instruction of Michigan, 
112; his plan of education in Michi- 
gan, lis; opposes colleges rivaling 
state university, 154; opposes private 
and denominational schools, 121; 
plan of, 114; plan of, made law al- 
most in tolo, 116; plan of, not all 
realizable, iis; slated for retirement, 
122. 

Pitcher, Dr. Zina, 148. 

Plan, of Association of City Superin- 
tendents, 231, 232; of the Commis- 
sion of Seven, 74; of John Pierce, 
legislature of Michigan accepts, 115; 
of school buildings, 181; Pierce's, not 
all realizable, 115. 

Plans, for a university with branches 
abandoned, 134; for complete state 
school system in Ohio, 74; for con- 
serving school funds, 114; for edu- 
cational system not- developed by 
Indiana, 76; for flexible courses, 
Whitney's, 235; for "University of 
Michigania" contained advanced 
ideas, 96; of Horace Mann and John 
Pierce similar, 114. 

Plymouth Colony, education in, 27. 

Points of contention in fight on early 
high schools, 193, 194. 

Policy of regents. Dr. Pitcher prepares 
address justifying, 148. 

Pontiac, branch at, 128. 

Poor, free schools for the, 13. 

Popular education, university spoken 
of as enemy to, 141. _ 

Popularity of branches increases, 130. 

Population, in Michigan from 18 10 to 
1890, map showing growth of, 94; 
of early Michigan increases slowly, 
93. 

Post-graduate work in high schools, 
offered, 215; receives university 
credit, 216. 

Power, concentration of, in Michigan 
schools, 10 1. 

Powers, and duties of first Board of 
Education of Michigan, 99; control- 
ling the early Northwest, 64, 67. 

"Practical subjects," accorded inferior 
rank, 212; in rural high schools, 221. 

Practices and institutions familiar to 
Puritan fathers at home, i. 

Preparation, for university prime pur- 
pose of university branches, 141; of 
high-school teachers, 237. 



Preparatory work offered by Romeo 
branch, 136. 

Prescribed course, decline of, 186. 

Present condition of funds for primary 
schools of Michigan, 119, 120. 

Primary School Fund of Michigan, 119; 
sources of, 119. 

Primary School Interest Fund, 193; for 
support of common schools, 193. 

Primary schools of Michigan, present 
condition of funds for, 119, 120. 

Principals, 180; of union schools, 187. 

"Principal meridian," 90; diagram 
showing, 91. 

Principles incorporated in bill estab- 
lishing University of Michigania, 100. 

Private academies founded between 
1830 and 1S36, 152. 

Private gifts, decreasing, 23. 

Private schools, circumstances tem- 
porarily check growth of, 124, era of 
activity of, 124; in Michigan, no 
need for denominational or, 100; of 
New York, standards to be met by, 
121; Pierce opposed to, 121; struggle 
in legislature over, 122. 

Professional training and state certi- 
fication of teachers in Michigan 
recommended, 114. 

Professorships in the Department of 
Literature, Science, and the Arts, 128. 

Program, for union schools, 207; in 
academies, 169; in the Boys' High 
School, 56; in the Girls' High School, 
SS; in Grand Rapids High School, 
1862, 224, 225; in high schools, pre- 
scribed, 54; in Phillips Exeter Acade- 
my, 58-60; in union schools varied, 
180; in university, 1843, 142-143; in 
university, 1850, 146; in Wesleyan 
Seminary, 169; in Ypsilanti academ- 
ical department, 185; of Detroit 
High School, 1879, 229-231; of Eng- 
lish Course in Ann Arbor High 
School, 183; of studies for all schools, 
new uniform, 234; of 1905, 237; 
offered in the classical school at 
Detroit, 103. 

Programs, of high schools consolidated 
and unified, 229; of studies in Mich- 
igan have common foundation, 
237. 

"Property" in academy charters, 165. 

Protestants in America, 5. 

Provisions by law for branches of the 
university. 125; for increasing needs 
of high schools, 196; for secondary 
education, legislature refuses to 
make, 173; in some academy charters, 
164-166; made for girls' schools, 127; 
of Indiana for education, 75. 

Public control and support of schools 
in Michigan, 100. 

Public expense, education in Michigan 
at, 104. 

Public high school appears, 80. 

Public Instruction, State Superintend- 
ent of, in Michigan, 108. 



The Index 



265 



Public lands of Michigan, purchasers 
of, released from contracts, 117; sale 
of, 116; survey of, 90. 

Public school, Dorchester first to sup- 
port a, by direct taxation, 9; first 
type of, in Massachusetts Bay 
Colony, I. 

Public schools, academies considered 
essentially, 151; foundation _ of 
American, of secondary education, 
2; graded schools not free, 176. 

Public secondary education at close 
of Colonial Period, 33; secondary 
schools, courts settle legal status 
of, 193; union school appears, 80; 
union schools secure a firm footing, 
153. 

Purchasers of public lands released 
from contracts, 117. 

Puritan fathers, the, i; practices and 
institutions familiar to, I. 

Puritans foster interest in education, 10. 

QUALIFICATIONS for master of 
school in Charleston, S. C, 32; for 
teachers in grammar schools, 49. 

Quarter section, the, 90. 

" Question box " in the academies, 167. 

"RANGE," a, 90. 

"Rate" in graded schools, 176. 

Rate bill in union schools, 187. 

Recitation in university, 1850, 144. 

Records of earliest academies, 151. 

Reduction of university appropria- 
tions, 132. 

Regents, absolute masters of univer- 
sity, 148; favor opening more 
branches, 131; policy of, justified, 
148-1SO. 

Relationship of high schools and uni- 
versity more intimate, 212. 

Religion, and education, early settlers 
of Northwest supporters of, 68, 69; 
Congress annuls ordinance granting 
lands for support of, 70; in academy 
charters, 164; lands set aside for 
support of, 70; lands set aside for 
support of, a source of jealousy and 
contention, 70; study of the Bible 
and, 20. 

Religious, motive for education, 13; 
quarrels and criticisms cast shadow 
overbranches,i3o;sects,growthof,70. 

Repeal of Law of 1817, 103. 

Report, of Romeo branch, 133-140; 
recommending charter for Michigan 
College, 155- 

Reports of schools to the legislature, 
annual, 157- 

Representation in the legislature, 
Michigan rejects, 105. 

Representative school, St. Paul's 
School, London, a, is.. 

Requirements, for admission to Scien- 
tific Course, 203; for admission to 
university, 1850, 144; for establish- 
ing a branch of university, 125, 126; 



for position of high-school teacher, 
239; for university entrance, new, 213. 

Revenue, Federal government dis- 
tributes surplus, 113. 

Revival of branches, 133; demand for, 
147; hope of, abandoned, 148. 

Revival, of Learning, Era of the Ameri- 
can, 113; of public secondary edu- 
cation, 60-61 ; of secondary education, 
decline and, 52-53. 

Revolution, lands in Northwest Terri- 
tory sold to pay debts of, 68; leaves 
government in debt, 68. 

Revolutionary period, Virginia's school 
system in, 32. 

Rhode Island, secondary education in, 
30. 

Richard, Father Gabriel, 95, loi. 

Rigid courses losing favor, 225. 

Rise and development of union schools, 
172; of academies and institutes in 
Indiana, 79; of the American acade- 
my, 37; of the common (elementary) 
schools, 48; of ofi&ce of superintend- 
ent, 180. 

Romeo branch, and the university, 
friendly suit between, 135; appara- 
tus in the, 137; coeducation in, 139; 
faculty of, 136; in 1851, conditions 
in, 13s, 136; laboratory demonstra- 
tions part of instruction in, 137; last 
of the branches at, 134; literary 
society in, 139; offered preparatory 
and college work, 136; report of, 
135-140; represented university 
schools at their best, 135; scope of 
instruction in, 136; teacher-training 
course in, 138; tuition in, 137. 

Rural high schools authorized, 221; 
"practical" subjects in, 221. 

Rural schools, training teachers for, 222. 

Rural spelling school, 140. 

ST. LAWRENCE River, part of route 
of French explorers, 65. 

St. Paul's School, London, 15; most 
representative of English grammar 
schools, 15; requirements for ad- 
mission to, 16; subjects taught in, 16. 

Salaries, better in union schools, 175; 
in the colonial schools, 25; in union 
schools, list of, 182; in union schools 
low, 182; in university of Michigania, 
first, loi. 

Salary law, minimum, for teachers, 
recommended in Michigan, 114. 

School afifairs, discussed and provided 
for in town meeting, 8; managed by 
selectmen, 9; various methods of 
administering, 10. 

School, classical, at Detroit, 102; dame, 
3; elementary, maintained by every 
town of fifty families, 3; established 
in New Amsterdam, i; every town 
of one hundred families required to 
support a Latin, or grammar, 3; free, 
2, 5; French, at Kaskaskia, 81; gram- 
mar, 2; Latin, 2; Latin grammar, 2; 



266 



Public Secondary Education 



public, 2; public high, 4, 80; public 
union, 80; tax, in Indiana, 81; terms, 
in Michigan, 106, 107; training, be- 
ginning of aesthetic side of, 168; 
union, rise and development of, 172; 
unit changed from township to dis- 
trict, 108; visitation and inspection, 
9; year in university, 1850, 145. 

School building, contains all grades, 180; 
given over to academical or high- 
school department, 180; location of, 
181; plan of, 181; pride of each com- 
munity, 181; union, 180. 

School districts, advantages of con- 
solidation of, 175; in Detroit, eight, 
174; of Detroit consoHdated, 174; 
superintendents urge consolidation of, 
176, 177. 

School funds, in Indiana, permanent, 
89; insufficient for support of univer- 
sity and branches, 131, 147; loaned 
to county and individuals, 118; lost 
by loaning to individuals, 118; 
Michigan borrows, 118; Ohio dissi- 
pates, 72; plan for conserving, 114; 
suffer great loss, 117. 

School history, early, of Illinois, 81- 
84; of Indiana, 74-81; of Michigan, 
89-109; of Ohio, 72-74; of Wiscon- 
sin, 84. 

School lands, a definitely located and 
unvarying portion of public domain, 
92; changes in methods of distribut- 
ing, 47; Illinois receives, 82; Indiana 
receives, 74; Michigan, as a unit, 
receives, 88. 

School law, general, 3; of 1647, Massa- 
chusetts, a model for Michigan, 106; 
of Illinois, first, 82; permissive fea- 
tures of, made mandatory, 3- 

School laws contradictory, Michigan, 
107; fine for failure to comply with, 
in Michigan, 107; of 1827, Michigan, 
106, 107; of Ohio, early, 73; permis- 
sive of Indiana, 77. 

School libraries small and of inferior 
grade, early, 186. 

School officers, Indiana authorizes, 77; 
Ohio authorizes local, 73. 

School system, academies not strictly 
speaking a part of state-supported, 
151; beginning of a, recognizing three 
grades of instruction and three types 
of institutions, 3; for Virginia, 
Jefferson's scheme for a, 97; influence 
of centralizing theories of the French 
on the Michigan, 96; Massachusetts 
the mother of the, 3; of Indiana, ap- 
proaches first ideal, 81; of Michigan, 
academies, seminaries, and colleges 
recognized in, .124; of Michigan, 
educational principles underlying, 
104; of Michigan, real beginning of 
the, 95 ; of Michigan, the university 
the head of, 104; plan for complete 
state, in Ohio, 74; Thomas Jefferson's 
plan for, 32; Virginia's, during 
Revolutionary period, 32. 



Schools, academies considered essen- 
tially public, isi; advantages of 
union, 178; all set higher standards, 
211; and education, territorial laws 
of Illinois make no mention of, 82; 
annual reports of, to the legislature, 
157; at Detroit, early, 95; attempts 
to establish, in Michigan unsuccess- 
ful, 103; attempts to secure perma- 
nent and successful, 160; below 
university first to adopt coeducation, 
198; building to meet needs of new 
type of, 181; circumstances tem- 
porarily check growth of, 134; Civil 
War temporarily checks all, 191; co- 
education in union, 187; concentra- 
tion of power in Michigan, loi; 
demand for adequate, 37; early 
Catholic, at Detroit, 95; elementary 
and secondary education demanded 
two distinct types of, 120; era of 
activity of, 124; established from 
1629 to 164s, 7; for boys, the 
branches, 127; founded before Revo- 
lution still in existence, some, 44; 
graded, not free public schools, 176; 
Horace Mann's fight for better, 113; 
ideals for the, 13; important towns 
establish union or graded, 178; in 
Michigan before 1830 not incorpo- 
rated, 152; in Michigan, early 
French, 89; in Michigan, no need for 
private or denominational, 100; in 
Michigan, public support and control 
of, 100; in South Carolina, 32; list 
of salaries in uniori, 182; literary 
society almost sole diversion in, 140; 
low salaries in union, 182; Marietta, 
Ohio, receives federal aid for support 
of, 47; Mr. Pierce opposed to private 
and denominational, 121; nearly all 
colonies possessed Latin, 2; no fixed 
standard for union, 178; not con- 
trolled or supported by the state, 
Michigan sanctions, 123; of agri- 
culture, county, 222; of domestic 
science, county, 222; of every grade 
from elementary to university pro- 
vided for by Michigan plan, 100; of 
Indiana a theme for ridicule, 77;. of 
Michigan, chartered secondary, with 
dates of incorporation, 158-160; of 
social democracy, the academies. 166; 
of Wisconsin. 84; Ohio practically 
without, 73 ;"Principal of the Schools, " 
181; provisions made for girls', 127; 
public union, secure firm footing, 
153; rate bill in union, 187; sixteenth 
section of every township granted 
for support and maintenance of, 70; 
stronger, offered classical course, 183; 
"Superintendent of Schools," 181; 
superintendents favor graded, or 
union, 176, 177; terms in union. 180; 
textbooks in Illinois. 83; textbooks 
in union, 187; the day in the old 
colonial, 25; tuition or "rate" in 
graded, 176; union, foundation of 



The Index 



267 



high schools of to-day, 187; uni- 
versal demand for, 113; variety of 
titles for secondary, 160; various 
means of maintaining, 10; what the 
various, prepared for, 3. 

Science and Art of Teaching, Michigan 
first to have chair of, 238. 

Science demands its own place in col- 
lege curriculum, 202. 

Scientific Course, established in Uni- 
versity of Michigan, 203; require- 
ments for admission to, 203. 

Scope, and plan of union schools agree 
closely, 179; of high-school program, 
changes in, 223, 224; of instruction 
in Romeo branch, 136. 

Secondary education, academy fur- 
nishes only in America, 40; and first 
state constitutions, 45; at the close 
of the colonial period, public, 33; 
causes of increase of, 196; classed as 
superior education, 193; decline and 
revival of, 52-53; elementary and, 
demand two distinct types of schools, 
120; first school of, in America, i; 
for girls, 27; foundation of American 
public schools of, 2 ; general situation 
of, at close of colonial period, 27; 
in "branches" of the university, 
124; in Connecticut, 28; in early 
Northwest, 78; in Michigan, acade- 
mies play notable part in history of, 
151; in Michigan, third type of, 172; 
in middle colonies, 30; in New Haven 
Colony, 28; in Rhode Island, 30; 
influence of University of Michigan 
on, 197; legislature assumes neutral 
attitude toward, 172; legislature 
refuses to make provision for, 173; 
Massachusetts the mother of, in 
America, 27; no free, 162; period of 
hesitancy and halting in, 172; real 
beginnings of working system of 
public, in Michigan, 107; revival of 
public, 60-61; story of American, 
falls in three divisions, 4; transition 
period in, 61. 

Secondary institutions, the old and the 
new in, 39. 

Secondary school, the academy the 
second great type of, 151; first, in 
New York, 30. 

Secondary schools, courts settle legal 
status of public, 93; earliest acade- 
mies in a sense, 152; English Latin 
the prototypes of early American, 
5; for girls, 27; free, secular, state- 
supported, demanded, 173; illustra- 
tive apparatus used in, 60; of 
Michigan, chartered, with dates of 
incorporation, 158-160; offer both 
elementary and college subjects, 185; 
variety of titles of, 160. 

Secondary-school, problem, three solu- 
tions ofi^ered for the, 162; work 
lacked life and interest, 60. 

Section, the, 90; diagram of a, 91; of 
each township numbered, each, 90; 



of land, method of locating a given, 
92; the quarter, 90; sixteenth always 
lies near center of township, 92; 
sixteenth, of every township dedi- 
cated to education, 70; system of 
numbering, 90. 

Sects, growth of religious, 70. 

Segregation in Latin schools, 27. 

Self-government, Michigan assumes, 
106; people of Territory of Michigan 
indifferent to English idea of, lOS. 

Semestrial plan adopted, 216. 

Seminaries, find recognition in Michi- 
gan school system, 124; in Illinois, 
"colleges" and, 83; in Illinois, state 
aid for colleges and, 83; meet an 
unfilled demand, academies and, 80; 
part of expenses of, and academies 
met by County Seminary Fund, 79. 

Seminary, county, in Indiana, 79; 
decline of the, 80; first, in Fayette 
County, 79; fund, Indiana's, 79; of 
learning. Congress grants land for 
support of a university or, 70; 
trustee, Indiana's, 79. 

Settlement, conditions in Michigan 
particularly unfavorable to, 87; de- 
lays in, redound to educational 
advantage of Michigan, 88; English, 
at Marietta, Ohio, 67; of Northwest, 
obstacles to, 86. 

Settlements, and trading-posts, early 
French, 65; early, in Michigan, 85. 

Settlers, early dangers faced by, 86; 
of Northwest supporters of religion 
and education, 68, 69; first, in North- 
west, 68; of Illinois, character of, 
81; of Illinois, from South Atlantic 
States, 81; of Michigan, character of, 
89; of Northwest guaranteed ad- 
vantages equal to those of rest of 
nation, 69. 

Sixteenth section of every township to 
be used for support of education, 47, 
70. 

Social democracy, academies schools of, 
166. 

Social need, academy fills, 34; Latin 
schools no longer meet, 24. 

Sources, of Primary School Fund of 
Michigan, 119; of support _ of 
branches, 126; of support of "First 
College of Michigania," 102; of 
support of University of Michigan, 
103. 

South Carolina, first school in, 32. 

South, education in the, 31. 

Special legislation, academies and in- 
stitutes chartered by. 79- 

Special officers, Dorchester provides 
first, for school administration, g; 
in charge of schools, 9. 

Spelling school, rural, 140. 

Spring Arbor Academy, 152. 

Standard of all schools raised, 2ii: 
school period of twelve years and 
twelve grades, 215; union schools 
have no fixed, 178. 



268 



Public Secondary Education 



standards to be met by private schools 
in New York, 121. 

State aid for colleges and seminaries in 
Illinois, 83. 

State Board of Education grants 
teacher's certificates, 239. 

State Board of Visitors recommends 
modification of university course, 144. 

State constitutions and secondary 
education, 45. 

State educational system, Illinois slow 
to establish a, 82. 

State superintendent of education, in 
Michigan, educational ideas of the 
first, 112; Michigan constitution 
first to provide for, 108. 

State supervision of educational insti- 
tutions, law required, 157. 

States, number of to be formed from 
Northwest Territory limited, 71; 
which claimed Northwest Territory, 
66. 

Statistics from twenty-eight high 
schools in 1874, 227. 

Status, of academies in United States 
in 1850, 51; of public secondary 
schools, courts settle legal, 193. 

Stock companies organized academies, 
163. 

Students, admitted to university on 
their own merits, 220; and faculty 
of university rapidly increase, 142; 
choose studies in academies, 170; 
from affiliated schools do better 
university work, 218; in university 
after 1850, number of, 147. 

Studies, free election of, in high schools 
first seen, 209; for union schools. 
Superintendent Gregory suggests 
program of, 207; in the academy, 
program of, 169; in union schools, 
varied program of, 183; in universi- 
ties, 1843, program of, 142, 143; in 
university, 1850, program of, 146; 
in university, Latin, Greek, and 
mathematics constitute bulk of, 143; 
in Ypsilanti academical department, 
program of, 185 ; partial election of, in 
East Saginaw, 209; principle of free 
choice of, finding favor, 186; pro- 
gram of, in Wesleyan Seminary, 169. 

Subject-matter in academies arranged 
in departments, 168; in University 
of Michigan, expansion of, 202. 

Subjects presented for admission to 
university, nearly free choice of, 
205; required for admission to high 
school, 183; taught in University of 
Michigania, 100. 

Suit, between Romeo branch and uni- 
versity, friendly, 13s; to determine 
legality of high schools, friendly, 194. 

Superintendent of Public Education 
in Michigan, 108; Reverend John 
Pierce, 112. 

"Superintendents of Schools," 180, 181; 
urge consolidation of school districts, 
176, 177. 



Supervision of high-school athletics 
rigid, 242. 

Support, and establishment of schools a 
legitimate function of government, 
6; of both university and branches, 
funds lacking for, 131, 147; of branches 
causes financial embarrassment of 
university, 147; of branches com- 
pletely withdrawn by university, 133; 
demand for, of branches, 147; sources 
of, for branches, 126; of common 
schools, Primary School Interest 
Fund for, 193; of high schools in part 
from University Fund, 93; of 
schools, proceeds from the fisheries 
for, 27, 28. 

Surplus revenue. Federal government 
distributes the, 113. 

Survey of public lands, 90. 

Surveyors in Michigan, explorers and, 
87. 

System, of education, Michigan de- 
mands adequate, 114; of free schools, 
tendency of state policy toward, 194; 
of numbering sections, 90; real begin- 
ning of school, of Michigan, 95. 

TAX, Boston levies, for school support, 
7; for support of academies, 34; for 
support of education repealed, 103; 
for support of grammar schools, 27; 
in Indiana, school, 81. 

Taxation, Dorchester first to support a 
public school by direct, 9. 

Teachers better in union schools, 175; 
differentiation of functions of, 180; 
employed in university, 129; for 
rural schools, training, 222; influence 
of college-bred, 240; in grammar 
schools, qualifications for, 49; in 
high schools hold college degrees, 
239; in union schools women, 187; 
prepara-tion of high-school, 237. 

Teachers' Appointment Committee, 
beginnings of, 139. 

Teacher's certificates, granted by uni- 
versity, 238; normal schools grant, 
239; State Board of Education 
grants, 239. 

Teachers' departments in high schools, 
226. 

"Teacher's Diploma," 238. 

Teacher-training course at Romeo, 138. 

Teaching unattractive to college grad- 
uates, 36. 

Teaching assistants, 180. 

Teaching staff of university at its open- 
ing, 142. 

Tecumseh, branch at, 129. 

Terms, in Michigan, school, 106, 107; 
in union schools, 180; of academy 
year, 168. 

Territorial Department of Education of 
Michigan, 108. 

Territorial, laws of Illinois make no 
mention of schools and education, 
82; period, educational system in 
Michigan at close of, 108. 



The Index 



269 



Territory of Michigan, people of, in- 
different to English idea of self- 
government, 105. 

Textbooks, in academies, 170; in Illinois 
schools, 83; in union schools, 187. 

Texts used in colonial schools brought 
from England, 17. 

Theology excluded from the university, 
128. 

Titles of secondary schools, variety of, 
160. 

Towns, important, establish graded or 
union schools, 178; vie for possession 
of branches, 129. 

Township, the, 90; diagram of a, 91; 
district instead of, made the school 
unit, 108; each section of each, 
numbered, 90; section sixteen always 
lies near center of, 92; system of 
numbering, 91. 

Trading-posts, early French settle- 
ments and, 65. 

Training, professional, recommended 
for teachers in Michigan, 114; of 
teachers at Romeo, 138; of teachers 
for rural schools, 222. 

Transition period in secondary edu- 
cation, 61. 

Treaty, of Ghent, 71; of Paris, 66. 

Trustee, Indiana's seminary, 79. 

"Trustees of Michigan College," 123. 

Tuition, fees, 34; in academies, 168; 
in graded schools, 176; in Romeo 
branch, 137. 

UNIFICATION of high-school pro- 
grams, 229. 

Uniformity among early high schools, 
little, 206. 

Union school, at Jonesville organized, 
178; forerunner of the present-day 
high school, 172; not expected to 
prepare for college, 178; public, 
appears, 80; Superintendent Gregory 
suggests program of studies for, 207; 
supplants the academy, 163; the day 
in the, 180; third type of education 
in Michigan, 172; to take place of 
local academy, 178. 

Union school building, 180; built, 177; 
contains all grades, 180; given over 
to academical (high-school) depart- 
ment, 180; location of, 181; plan of, 
i8r; pride of community, 181; to 
meet needs of new type of school, 181. 

Union schools, advantages of, 178; agree 
closely in plan and scope, 179; better 
salaries in, 175; better teachers in, 
17s; coeducation in, 187; depart- 
ments in, 179; early organization of, 
211; foundation of high schools of 
to-day, 187; general plan of organi- 
zation of, 179; grading in, 175; have 
little apparatus, early, 186; have 
men for principals, 187; have no fixed 
standard, 178; have women teachers, 
187; important _ towns establish, 
178; law permitting local officers to 



organize, anywhere, 17s; length of 
courses in, 179; list of salaries in, 
182; rate bill in, 187; reporting in 
1859, 1S9; rise and developrnent of, 
172; secure a footing, public, 153; 
superintendents favor, 176, 177; 
terms in, 180; text books in, 187; 
varied program of studies in, 183. 

Union-school, districts demanded 
throughout state, 174; libraries small 
and of inferior grade, 186; salaries 
low, 182. 

United States still follows Ordinance of 
1786, 47. 

Universities, coeducation not favored 
by, 198; nuclei for state, and system 
of free higher education, 70. 

University, created in New York, 97; 
Georgia establishes, 97; Ohio estab- 
lishes state, 73. 

University of Michigan, administration 
of, 103; admission by certificate, 210; 
admission by examination, 134; ad- 
mission on merit, 220; admission re- 
quirements in 1850, 144; affiliation 
with high schools, 202, 216; allows 
nearly free choice of entrance sub- 
jects, 20s; appropriations reduced, 
132; articulation with high schools, 
202, 212; baccalaureate degree con- 
ferred, 205; branches, see Branches of 
the university; buildings erected at 
Ann Arbor, 131; Classical Course 
established, 203; Commission of Ex- 
aminers for high schools, 213; Con- 
gress grants land for support of, 70; 
courses in, 104, 203; degrees granted 
by, 204; election of studies first ap- 
pears in, 203; elective principle 
applied to all work, 205; engineering 
courses established, 203; entrance re- 
quirements, 213; equipment pur- 
chased, 141; expansion of subject- 
matter in, 202; expenses of students, 
104; faculty and students of, increase, 
142; fees in, 14s; first catalogue of, 
142; first woman student in, 200; 
follows ideals and forms set by older 
institutions, 144; friendly suit be- 
tween Romeo branch and, 135; girls 
admitted to, in 1870, 129; gradua- 
tion from, based on "hours" of work, 
205; grants limited certificate privi- 
leges to high schools preparing for any 
one college course, 219; grants teach- 
er's certificate, 239; head of Michigan 
school system, 104; high schools 
affected by additional entrance re- 
quirements in, 214, by changes in 
policy in, 205, by coeducation in, 201; 
influence of, on secondary education, 
197; located at Ann Arbor, 128; mod- 
ification of course in, recommended 
by State Board of Visitors, 144; non- 
sectarian, 104; nucleus of a_ library 
for, 131; number of students in, after 
1850, 147; number of women in, 200; 
oflBcers controlling, 125; opens with 



270 



Public Secondary Education 



seven students and four teachers, 142; 
post-graduate high-school work, cred- 
it given for, 216; program of studies 
in 1843, 142, 143; program of studies 
in 1850, 146; recitations in 1850, 144; 
regents absolute masters of, 148; 
relations with branches, see Branches 
of the university; requirements for 
establishing branches of the, 125, 
126; Romeo branch represented 
schools of, at their best, 135; school 
year in 1850, 14s; Science and Art of 
Teaching, first to have chair of, 238; 
Scientific Course established, 203; 
sources of support of, 103; teachers 
employed by, 129; theology excluded 
from, 128; three departments of, 128; 
women admitted to, 200; women 
demand entrance to, 199; women 
refused admittance to, 199; work of 
high quality done in, by students 
from affiliated schools, 218 

"University of Michigania," 95; bill 
creating the, 97-99; first faculty of, 
10 1 ; first salaries in, 10 1; law the 
only traditional college subject not 
included in the course in, 100; orig- 
inal plan for, never put in opera- 
tion, 102; plan for, contained ad- 
vanced ideas, 96; principles em- 
bodied in the bill establishing, 100; 
sources of support of, 99; subjects 
covered in the courses of, 100. 

University Fund, 193; partly supports 
high schools, 194. 

Upper Peninsula added to Michigan, 
no. 

Usher, duties of the school, 25. 

VALUE of land grants high, average, 

92. 
Variety, of titles applied to secondary 

schools, 160; of types of colleges 

stimulate education in Michigan, 

156. 
Vermont, 30. 
Vincennes University, 74. 



Virginia, authorizes schools in 1660, 
31; Jefferson's scheme for school 
system for, 97; school system in 
"Revolutionary period, 32. 

Virginia Company, the, i; provisions 
of, for founding schools in America, i. 

Voluntary contributions for support of 
schools, 28. 

WAR of i8t2, 71. 

Ward buildings, 180. 

Washington Academy at Carlyle, 111., 
83. 

Wesleyan Seminary, program of 
studies in, 169. 

West India Company, i; provisions of, 
for founding schools in America, I. 

Westward migration, 67. 

White Pigeon, branch of university at, 
129. 

William Penn Charter School, 31. 

Wisconsin, fifth territory in the North- 
west, 72; from the first gave system- 
atic attention to schools and educa- 
tion, 84; profits by her neighbors' 
experiences, 84; schools of, 84. 

Woman student, first, in the University 
of Michigan, 200. 

Women, admitted to University of 
Michigan, 200; demand entrance to 
University of Michigan, 199; number 
of, in University of Michigan, 200; 
instructors in the branches, 129; 
refused admittance to University of 
Michigan, 199; teachers in union 
schools, 187. 

Work in university made elective, 205; 
offered by Romeo branch, college 
and preparatory, 136; offered in 
graded school left to local board, 
176. 

YEAR in the university (1850), the 
school, 145. 

Young Men's Society, Detroit, 157. 

Ypsilanti academical department, pro- 
gram of studies in, 185. 






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